FlilKCETOJS'. N. J.
No. (Mse, _3^:^^^^;^.
No. Shelf, ,_._Secti<^-^_ J/-
Ko. Bool: _ Z^*^' '""'
The J(»lni ^1. Krebs Donation.
V. 7
THE
WORKS
JOHN OWEN, D.D.
EDITED
BY THOMAS RUSSELL, M.A.
MEMOIRS OF HIS LIFE AND WRITINGS,
BY WILLIAM ORME.
VOL. VII.
CONTAINING
THE DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE EXPLAINED
AND CONFIRMED; THE
MORTIFICATION OF SIN IN BELIEVERS ; AND THE
NATURE AND POWER OF TEMPTATION.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR RICHARD BAYNES, 28, PATERNOSTER ROW:
And sold by J. Parker, Oxford ; Deighlon and Sons, Cambridge ; D. Brown,
Waugh and Innes, and H. S. Baynes and Co. Edinburgh ; Chalmers and
Collins, and M. Ogle, Glasgow ; M. Keene, and R. M. Tims, Dublin.
1826.
CONTENTS
THE SEVENTH VOLUME.
THE DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE EXPLAINED
AND CONFIRMED.
CHAP. XI.
The entrance into an answer to Mr. G.'s arguments against the doctrine of the
saints' perseverance : his sixth argument about tlie usefulness of the doctrine
under consideration to tlie work of the ministry, proposed. His proof of
the minor pro|)Osition, considered and answered. Many pretenders to pro-
mote godliness by false doctrines. Mr. G.'s common interest in this argu-
ment. His proofs of the usefulness of his doctrine unto the promotion of
godliness ; considered and answered. The inconsequence of his arguing dis-
covered. The doctrine by him opposed, mistaken, ignorantly, or wilfully.
Objections proposed by Mr. G. to himself to be answered. The objection
as proposed, disowned. Certainty of tlie love of God, in what sense a mo-
tive to obedience. The doctrine of apostacy denies ilie unchangeableness of
God's love to believers : placetli qualifications in tlie room of persons. How
the doctrine of perseverance proraiseth the continuance of the love of God to
believers. Certainty of reward, encouraging to regular actions. Promises
made to persons qualified, not suspended upon those qualifications. Means
appointed of God for the accomplishment of a determined end, certain.
Means not always conditions. Mr. G.'s strange inference concerning the
Scripture, considered; The word of God by him undervalued, and subjected
to the judgment of vain men, as to its truth and authority. The pretended
reason of the former proceeding discussed. The Scripture the sole judge of
what is to be ascribed to God, and believed concerning him. The doctrine
of tlie saints' perseverance, falsely imposed on, and vindicated. Mr. G.'s
next objection made to himself, against his doctrine : its unseasonableness as
to the argument in hand, demonstrated. No assurance of the love of God,
nor peace left the saints by the doctrine of apostacy. The ground of peace
and assurance by it taken away. Ground of Paul's consolation ; 1 Cor. ix.
S7. The meaning of the word aSoxijuo;. Another plea against the doctrine
atieiupted to be proved by Mr. G. That attempt considered. Not the
weakness of the flesh naturally, but the strength of lust spiritually pretend-
ed. The cause of sin in the saints farther discussed. The power ascribed
by Mr. G. to men, for tlie strengthening and making willing the Spirit in
them, considered. The aptness of the saints to perform, what, and whence.
i' CONTENTS.
Page
The opposition they have in them thereunto. Gospel obedience how easy.
The conclusion. Answer to chap. xiii. of his book proposed 1
CHAP. xir.
Mr. G.'s entrance and preface to his arguments from the apostacy of the saints
considered. The weakness of his first argument : the import of it. Answer
to that first argument. Doctrine may pretend to give God the glory of being
no accepter of persons, and yet be false : justification by works of that rank
and order. Acceptation of persons what, and wherein it cousisteth. No
place for it with God : contrary to distributive justice. The doctrine of the
saints' perseverance charged with rendering God an accepter of persons, un-
justly : what it says looking this way. The sum of the charge against if,
considered and removed. Mr. G.'s second argument, and the weight by iiim
hung thereon : the original of this argument: by whom somewhat insisted
on. The argument itself in his words, proposed : of the use and end of the
ministry : whether weakened by the doctrine of perseverance. Entrance
into an answer to that argument. The foundation laid of it false, and when :
it falsely imposeth on the doctrine of perseverance, sundry things by it dis-
claimed : the first considered. The iniquity of those impositions farther dis-
covered. The true state of the difference as to this argument, declared.
The argument satisfied. The reinforcement of the minor attempted, and
considered. The manner of God's operations with, and in, natural and vo-
luntary agents, compared. EtBcacy of grace and liberty' in man, consistent.
An objection to himself framed by Mr. G. ; that objection rectified. Perseve-
rance, how absolutely and simply necessary, how not. The removal of the pre-
tended objection farther insisted on by I\Ir. G. That discourse discussed, and
manifested to be weak and sophistical. The consistency of exhortations and
promises farther cleared. The manner of the operation of grace, in and upon
the wills of men, considered. The inconsistency of exhortations with the ef-
ficacy of grace, disputed by Mr. G. That discourse removed, and the use
of exhortations farther cleared. Obedience to them twofold, habitual, ac-
tual : of the physical operation of grace and means of the word : their com-
pliance and use. How the one and the other atlect the will. Inclination to
persevere when wrought in believers. Of the manner of God's operation on
the wills of men : JMr. G.'s discourse and judgment, considered. Effects fol-
low as to their kind, their next causes. The same act of the will physical
and moral upon several accounts : those accounts considered. God, by the
real efficacy of the Spirit, produceth in us acts of the will, morally good :
that confirmed from Scripture : conclusion from thence. Of the terms, phy-
sical, moral, and necessary, and their use in things of the nature under con-
sideration. Moral causes of physical effects. The concurrence of physical
and moral causes for producing the same effect: the efiTicacy of grace and ex-
hortations. Physical and necessary, how distinguished. Moral and not ne-
cessary. Confounded by Mr. G. Mr. G.'s farther progress considered.
What operation of God on the will of man he allows. All physical opera-
tion by him excluded. Mr. G.'s sense of the difference between the work-
ing of God and a minister on the will : that it is but gradual : considered and
removed. All working of God on the will by him confined to persuasion ; per-
suasion gives no strength or ability to the ])erson persuaded. All immediate
acting of CJod to good in men, by Mr. G. utterly excluded. Wherein God's
persuading men doth consist, according to Mr. G. 1 Cor. iii. 9. considered.
Of tlieconcurrence of diverse agents to the production of the sameeti'ect. The
CONTENTS. ▼
Page
sum of the 7th section of chap. 13. The will how necessitated, how free. In
what sense Mr. G. allows God's persuasions tu be irresistible. The dealings of
God and men ill-compared. Paul's exhortation to the use of means, where
the end was certain. Acts x.viv. considered. God deals with men as men,
exhorting them, and as corrupted men, assisting them. Of promises of tem-
poral things, whetlier all conditional. What conditiou in the promise made
to Paul ; Acts xxvii. Farther of that promise, its infallibility and means of
accomplishment. The same considerations farther prosecuted. Of promises
of perseverance, and what relations to perform in conjunction. Mr. G.'s
opposition hereunto. Promises and protestations in conjunction. 1 Cor. x.
12, 13. discussed. An absolute promise of perseverance therem evinced.
Phil. ii. 12, 13. to the same purpose considered. Mr. G.'s interpretation of
that place proposed, removed. Heb. vi. 4, 5. 9. to the same purpose, in-
sisted on. Of the consistency of threatenings with the promises of perseve-
rance. Mr. G.'s opposition hereunto, considered and removed. What pro-
mises of perseverance are asserted, how absolute and infrustrable. Fear of
hell and punishment twofold. The fear, intended to be ingenerat.ed by
threatenings, not inconsistent with the assurance given by promises. Five
considerations about the use of threatenings : the first, &c. Hypocrites how
threatened for apostacy: of the end and aim of God in threatenings. Of the
proper end and efficacy of threatenings, with reference unto true believers.
Fear of hell and punishment, how far a principle of obedience ui the saints.
Of Noah's fear ; Heb. xi. 7. Mr. G.'s farther arguings for the efficacy of
the fear of hell, unto obedience in the saints ; proposed, considered, re-
moved. 1 John iv. 18. considered. Of the obedience of saints to their hea-
venly Father, compared to the obedience of children to their natural
parents : Mr. G.'s monstrous conception about this thing. How fe.-ir, or
love, and in what sense, are principles of obedience. That which is done
from fear, not done w illingly, nor cheerfully. How fear, and what fear, hath
torment. Of the nature and use of promises. Close of the answer to this
. , = 25
argument
CHAP. XIII.
The maintainers and propagaters of the several doctrines under contest, taken
into consideration. The necessity of so doing from Mr. G. undertaking to
make the comparison. This inquiry confined to those of our own nation.
The chief assertors of this doctrine of the saints' perseverance in this nation
since it received any opposition, what was their ministry, and what their
lives. Mr. G.'s plea in this case. The first objection against his doctrine
by him proposed, second, and third. His answers to these objections consi-
dered : removed. His own word and testimony otfered against the expe-
rience of thousands. The persons pointed to by liim, and commended, con-
sidered. The principles of those persons he opposeth, vindicated. Of the
doctrine of tlie primitive Christians, as to this head of religion. Grounds of
mistake in reference to their judgments. The first reformers constant to
themselves in their doctrine of the saints' perseverance. Of the influence
of Mr. Perkins's judgment on the propagation of the doctrine of the saints'
perseverance. Who the persons were of whom his judgment is supposed
to have such an influence. The consent of foreign churches making void
this surmise. What influence the doctrine of the saints' perseverance had
into the holiness of its professors. Of the unworthiness of the persons who
in this nation have asserted the doctrine of apostacy : the suitableness of
vi CONTENTS.
Page
tliis doctrine to tliiir practices. Mr. G.'s attempt to take otY this charge.
How far men's doctrines may be judged by tlieir lives. Mr. O.'s reasons
wliy episcopaiists arrainianised, the first. Consid<"red and disproved. His
discord, &c. General apostacy of men entertaining the Arrainian tenets.
The close 95
CHAP. XIV.
]Mr. G.'s third argument proposed and considered. Tlie drama borrowed by
Mr. G. to make good this argument. The frame of speech ascribed to God
according to our doctrine by the remonstrants weighed and considered.
The dealing of God with man, and the importance of his exhortations, ac-
cording to the doctrine of the saints' perseverance manifested. In what
sense, and to what end, exhortations and threatenings are made to believers.
The fallacious ground of this argument of Mr. G. Mr. G.'s fourth argu-
ment proposed to consideration, considered. Eternal life, how and in what
sense a reward of perseverance. The enforcement of the major proposition
considered. The proposition new moulded, to make it of concernment to
our doctrine, and denied : from the example of the obedience of Jesus
Christ. Efficacy of grace not inconsistent with reward. The argument
enforced with a new consideration : that consideration examined, and
removed. Farther of the consistency of effectual grace, and gospel ex-
hortations I 117
CHAP. XV.
Mr. G.'s fifth argument for the apostacy of true believers. The weight of this
argument taken from the sins of believers. The difTerence between the sins
of believers and unregenerate persons proposed to consideration, James i.
14, 15. The rise and progress of lust and sin. The fountain of all sin, in
all persons, is lust. Rom. vii. 7. Observations clearing the dillerence be-
tween regenerate and unregenerate persons in their sinning, as to the com-
mon fountain of all sin : the first. The second, of ilie universality of lust in
the soul by nature. The third, in two inferences : the first, unregenerate
men sin with tlieir whole consent. The second inference concerning the
reign of sin, and reigning sin. The fourth, concerning the universal pos-
session of the soul by renewing grace. Tlie fifth, that true grace bears rule
•wherever it be. Inferences from the former considerations. The first, that
in every regenerate person there are diverse principles of all moral opera-
tions. Rom. vii. 19, 20. opened. The second, that sin cannot reign in a
regenerate person. The third, that regenerate persons sin not with their
whole consent. Answer to the argument at the entrance proposed. Be-
lievers never sin with their whole consent and wills. ]\Ir. G.'s attempt to re-
move the answer. His exceptions considered and removed. Plurality of
■wills in the same person, in the Scripture sense : of the opposition between
flesh and spirit : that no regenerate person sins with his full consent, proved.
Of the Spirit, and his lustings iu us. The actings of the Spirit in us free,
not suspended on any conditions in us. The same farther manifested.
Mr. G.'s discourse of the first and second motions of the Spirit considered.
The same considerations farther carried on. Peter Martyr's testimony con-
sidered. Rom. vii. 19, 20. considered. Difference between the opposition
made to sin in persons regenerate, and that in persons unregenerate, farther
argued. Of the sense of Rom. vii. and in what sense believers do the works
of the flesh. The close of these considerations. The answer to the argu-
CONTENTS. vii
Page
lueut at the entrance of the chapter opened. The argument new fornscd :
the major proposition limited, and granted, and the minor denied. The
proof of the major considered: Gal. v. 21. Eph. v. 5, 6. 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10.
Believers how concerned in comminations. Threatening proper to unbe-
lievers for their sins. Farther objections proposed and removed. Of the
progress of saints in tempting to sin. The eifect of lust in temptations.
DifiFerence between regenerate and unregenerate persons as to the tempting
of lust, 1. in respect of universality; 2. of power. Objections answered.
Whether believers sin only out of infirmity. Whether believers may sin
out of malice, and with deliberation. Of the state of believers, who upon
their sin may be excommunicated. Whether the body of Christ may be
dismembered. What body of Christ it is that is intended. Mr. G.'s
thoughts to this purpose examined. Mr. G.'s discourse of the way where-
by Christ keeps or may keep his members examined. Members of Christ
cannot become members of Satan : 1 Cor, vi. 15. considered, of the sense
and use of the word apaj. Christ takes members out of the power of Satan,
gives up none to him. Repetition of regeneration asserted by the doctrine
of apostacy. The repetition disproved. Mr. G.'s notion of regeneration
examined at large and rebuked. Relation between God and his children
indissoluble. The farther progress of lust for the production of sin ; it draws
off, and entangles: drawing away, what it is. The distance between rege-
nerate and unregenerate persons in their being drawn away by lust. J'arther
description of him who is drawn away by lust; and of the difference for-
merly mentioned. Of lust's enticing. How far this may befall regenerate men.
To do sin, Rom. vii. what it intendeth. Lust's conceiving, wherein it con-
sists. Of the bringing forth of sin, and how far the saints of God may pro-
ceed therein. 1 John iii. 9. opened : the scope of the place discovered : vin-
dicated. The words farther opened. The proposition in the words uni-
versal : inferences from thence. The subject of that proposition considered,
every one that is born of God, what is affirmed of them. What meant by
committing of sin. Mr. G.'s opposition to the sense of that expression given.
Reasons for the confirmation of it. Mr. G.'s reasons against it, proposed
and considered. The farther exposition of the word carried on : how he
that is born of God cannot sin : several kinds of impossibility. Mr. G.'s
attempt to answer the argument from this place, particularly examined. The
reasons of the proposition in tlie text considered : of the seed of God abid-
oth : the nature of that seed, what it is, wherein it consists. Of the abiding
of this seed. Of the latter part of the apostle's reason, he is born of God :
our argument from the words. Mr. G.'s endeavour to evade that argument ;
his exposition of the words removed. Farther of the meaning of tlie word
abideth. The close 128
CHAP. XVI.
Mr. G.'s seventh argument about the tendency of the doctrine of the saints'
apostacy as to their consolation, proposed. Considered : what that doctrine
offereth for the consolation of the saints, offered ; the impossibility of its
affording the least true consolation manifested. The influence of the doc-
trine of the saints' perseverance into tiieir consolation. The medium where-
by Mr. G. confirms his argument examined; what kind of nurse for the
peace and consolation of the saints, the doctrine of apostacy is ; whether
their obedience be furthered by it; what are the causes and springs of true
consolation. Mr. G.'s eighth arguuient propos-ed to consideration. Answer
viii CONTENTS,
Page
thereunto, tlie ruinor proposition considered; the Holy Ghost not afraid of
the saints' miscarriages. The confirmation of his minor proposition, proposed
and considered. Tlie discourse assigned to the Holy Gliost by Mr. G. ac-
cording to our principles. Considered. Exceptions against it : the first.
The second. The third. The fourth. The fifth. The sixth. The seventh.
The foundation of Rlr. G.'s pageant everted. The proceedings of the Holy
Ghost in exhortations according to our principles. Sophisms in the furiner
discourse farther discovered. His farther plea in this case proposed. Con-
sidered. The instance of Christ and his obedience, considered and vindi-
cated as to the application of it, to the business in hand. Mr. G.'s last
argument proposed. Examined. 1 John ii. 19. explained. Vindicated.
Argument from thence for the perseverance of the saints. Mr. G.'s excep-
tions thereunto. Considered and removed. The same words farther pe-
rused. Mr. G.'s consent with the remonstrants manifested by his transcrip-
tions from their synodalia. Our argument from 1 John ii. 19. fully cleared.
The conclusion of the examination of Mr. G.'s arguments for the apostacy of
the saints • 215
CHAP. XVII.
The cause of proceeding in this chapter. Mr. G.'s attempt, chap. 12. of his
book. Of the preface to Mr. G.'s discourse. Whether doctrine renders
men proud and presumptuous. Mr. G.'s rule of judging of doctrines calied
to tlie rule. Doctrine pretending to promote godliness, how far an argument
of the truth. Mr. G.'s pretended advantages in judging of truths examined.
The first, of his knowledge of the general course of the Scriptures. Of the
experiences of his own heart. And his observations of the ways of others.
Of his rational abilities. Ezek. xviii. S-l, 25. proposed to consideration. Mr.
G.'s sense of this place. The words opened ; observations for the open-
ing of the text. The words farther weighed ; an entrance into the answer
to the argument from hence : the word hypothetical not absolute. Mr. G.'s
answer proposed and considered. Whether the words are hypothetical.
The severals of the text considered ; the righteous man spoken of, who.
Mr. G.'s proof of his interpretation of a righteous man considered. Dr.
Prideaux's sense of the righteous person here intended, considered. Of
the commination in the words : shall die. The sense of the words : what
death intended. Close of the consideration of the text insisted on. Matt,
xviii. 32, 33. taken into a review. Whether the love of God be mutable,
what the love of God is. 1 Cor. ix. 27. In what sense it was possible for
Paul to become a reprobate. The proper sense of the place insisted on,
manifested. Of the meaning of the word aJoxj^uoc. The scope of the place
farther cleared. Heb. vi. 4 — 6. x. 26, 27. proposed to consideration : whe-
ther the words be conditional. The genuine and true meaning of the place
opened, in six observations. Mr. G.'s exceptions to the exposition of the
words insisted on, removed. The persons intended not true believers : this
evinced on sundry considerations. The particulars of the text vindicated.
Of the illuminations mentioned in the text. Of the acknowledgment of the
truth ascribed to the person mentioned. Of the sanctifications mentioned
in the texts. Of tasting the heavenly gift. To be made partakers of the
Holy Ghost, what. Of tasting the good word of God, and power of the
world to come. Of the progress made by man not really regenerate in the
things of God. The close of our considerations on these texts. Hob. x.
38, 39. Mr. G.'s arguing from tlicnce : considered ;md answered : of the
CONTENTS. ix
Page
right translation of the word : Beza vindicated, as also our English transla-
tions. The words of the text, effectual to prove the saints' perseverance.
Of the parable of the stony ground ; Matt. xiii. 20, 21. Mr. G.'s arguing
from the place proposed and considered. The similitude in the parable far-
ther considered. An argument from the text, to prove the persons described
not to be true believers. 2 Pet. ii. 18 — 22. Mr. G.'s arguings from this
place considered, &c. ' 250
OF THE MORTIFICATION OF SIN IN BELIEVERS.
Preface 327
CHAP. I.
The foundation of the whole ensuing discourse laid in Rom. viii. 13. The
words of the apostle opened. The certain connexion between true mortifica-
tion and salvation. Mortification the work of believers. The Spirit the
principal efficient cause of it. What meant by the body in the words of the
apostle. What by the deeds of the body. Life in what sense promised to
this duty. 331
CHAP. II.
The principal assertion concerning the necessity of mortification proposed to
confirmation. Mortification the duty of the best believers ; Col. iii. 5. 1 Cor.
ix. 27. Indwelling sin always abides ; no perfection in this life ; Phil. iii.
12. 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 2 Pet. iii. 18. Gal. v. 17, &c. The activity of abiding
sin in believers ; Rom. vii. 23. James iv. 5. Heb. xii. 1. Its fruitfulness and
tendency. Every lust aims at the height in its kind. The Spirit and new
nature given to contend against indwelling sin ; Gal. v. 17. 2 Pet. i. 4, 5.
Rom. vii. 23. The fearful issue of the neglect of mortification ; Rev. iii. 2.
Heb. iii. 13. The first general principle of the whole discourse hence con-
firmed. Want of this duty lamented. • • ' 336
CHAP. III.
The second general principle of the means of mortification proposed to confir-
mation. The Spirit the only author of this work. Vanity of Popish mortifi-
cation discovered. Many means of it used by them not appointed of God.
Those appointed by him abused. The mistakes of others in this business.
The Spirit is promised believers for this work; Ezek. i. 19. xxxvi. 26. All
that we receive from Christ, is by the Spirit. How the Spirit mortifies sin ;
Gal. V. 19 — 23. The several ways of his operations to this end proposed.
How his work, and our duty 344
CHAP. IV.
U'he last principle ; of the usefulness of mortification. The vigour and comfort
of our spiritual lives depend on our mortification. In what sense. Not ab-
solutely and necessarily ; Psal. Ixxxviii. Heman's condiiion. Not as on the
next and immediate cause. As a means ; by removing of the contrary. The
desperate effects of any unmortified lust : it weakens the soul; Psal. xxxviii.
VOL. VII. b
X CONTENTS.
Page
3. 8. sundry ways, and darkens it. All graces improved by the mortlficatiua
of sin. The best evidence of sincerity. S50
CHAP. V.
The principal intendment of the whole discourse proposed. The first main case
of conscience stated. What it is to mortify any sin, negatively considered.
Not the utter destruction of it in this life. Not the dissimulation of it. Not
the improvement of any natural principle. Not the diversion of it. Not an
occasional conquest. Occasional conquests of sin, what, and when. Upon
the eruption of sin. In time of danger or trouble. SS^
CHAP. VI.
The mortification of sin in particular described. The several parts and de-
grees thereof. The habitual weakening of its root and principal. The
power of lust to tempt. Differences of that power as to persons and times.
Constant fighting against sin. The parts thereof considered. Success
against it. The sum of this discourse considered 358
CHAP. VII.
General rules, without which no lust will be mortified. No mortification unless
a man be a believer. Danger of attempting mortification of sin by unregene-
rate persons. The duty of unconverted persons, as to this business of morti-
cation, considered. Tlie vanity of tlie Papist's attempts, and rules for morti-
fication thence discovered SSi
CHAP. VIII.
The second general rule proposed. Without universal sincerity for the morti-
fying of every lust, no lust will be mortified. Partial mortification always
from a corru[)t principle. Perplexity of temptation from a lust, oftentimes a
chastening for otlier negligences 373
CHAP. IX.
Particular directions in relation to the foregoing case proposed. First, Consi-
der the dangerous symptoifis of any lust. 1. Inveterateness. 2. Peace ob-
tained under it ; the several ways whereby that is done. 3. Frequency of
success in its seductions. 4. The soul's fighting against it, with arguments
only taken from the event. 5. Its being attended with judiciary hardness.
6. Its withstanding particular dealings from God. The state of persons in
whom these things are found 377
CHAP. X.
The second particular direction. Get a clear sense of, 1. The guilt of tlie sin
perplexing. Considerations for help therein proposed. 2. The danger
manifold. (1,) Hardening. (2.) Temporal correction. (3.) Loss of peace
and strength. (4.) Eternal destruction. Rules for this management of the
consideration. 3. The evil of it. (1.) In grieving the Spirit. (2.) Wound- ^
ing tiie new creature -^^^
CHAP. XL
The third direction proposed. Load thy conscience with the guilt of the per-
plexing distemper. The ways and means whereby that may be done. The
CONTENTS. X
Page
fourth direction. Vehement desire for deli verance. The fifth. Some dis-
tempers rooted deeply in men's natural tempers. Considerations of such
distempers, ways of dealings with them. The sixth direction. Occasions
and advantages of sin to be prevented. The seventh direction. The first
actings of sin vigorously to be opposed. 393
CHAP. XII.
The eighth direction. Thoughtfulness of the excellency of the majesty of
God. Our unacquaintedness with him, proposed and considered 400
CHAP. XIII.
The ninth direction. When the heart is disquieted by sin, speak no peace to
it, until God speak it. Peace, without detestation of sin, unsound. So is
peace measured out unto ourselves. How we may know when we measure
out peace unto ourselves. Directions as to that inquiry. The vanitj^ of
speaking peace slightly. Also of doing it on one singular account, not uni-
versally 409
CHAP. XIV.
The general use of the foregoing directions. The great direction for the ac-
complishment of the work aimed at. Act faith on Christ ; the several ways
whereby this may be done. Consideration of the fulness in Christ for re-
lief proposed. Great expectations from Christ ; grounds of these expecta-
tions. His mercifulness, his faithfulness. Event of such expectations. On
the part of Christ. On the part of believers. Faith peculiarly to be acted
on the death of Christ; Rom. vi. 3 — 6. The work of the Spirit in this
whole business 420
OF TEiMPTATION : THE NATURE AND POWER OF IT.
Preface 433
CHAP. I.
The words of the text, that are the foundation of the ensuing discourse. The
occasion of the words, with their dependance ; the things specially aimed at
in them. Things considerable in the words as to the general purpose in
hand. Of the general nature of temptation wherein it consists. The special
nature of temptation. Temptation taken actively and passively. How God
tempts any. His ends in so doing. The way whereby he doth it : of temp-
tation in its special nature : of the actions of it. The true nature of tempta-
tion stated 437
CHAP. II.
What it is to enter into temptation. Not barely being tempted. Not to be
conquered by it. To fall into it. The force of that expression. Things
required unto entering into temptation. Satan or lust more than ordinarily
importunate. The soul's entanglement. Seasons of such entanglements dis-
covered. Of the hour of temptation. Rev. iii. 18. what it is. How any
temptation comes to its hour. How it may be known when it is so come.
The means of prevention prescribed by our Saviour. Of watching, and v»hat
is intended thereby. Of prayer • 444
xu CONTENTS.
Page
CHAP. III.
The doctrine. Grounds of it ; our Saviour's direction in this case. His pro-
mise of preservation. Issues of men entering into temptation. 1. Of un-
grounded professors. 2. Of the choicest saints, Adam, Abraham, David.
Self-consideration as to our own \\eakness. The power of a man's heart to
withstand temptation considered. The considerations that it useth for that
purpose. The power of temptation, it darkens the mind. The several ways
whereby it dotli so. 1. By fixing the imaginations. 2. By entangling the
affections. 3. Temptations give fuel to lust. 4. The end of temptation
considered, with the issue of the former temptations ; some objections an-
swered • 449
CHAP. IV.
Particular cases proposed to consideration : the first its restitution in sundry
particulars ; several discoveries of tlie state of a soul entering into temp-
tation ' 469
CHAP. V.
The second case proposed, or inquiries resolved. What are the best directions,
to prevent entering into temptation ; those directions laid down. The direc-
tions given by our Saviour; ' Watcli and pray.' What is included therein.
1. Sense of tlie danger of temptation. 2. That it is not in our power to keep
ourselves. 3. Faitli in promises of preservation. Of prayer in particular.
Of watching 476
CHAP. VI.
Of watching that we enter not into temptation : the nature and efficacy of that
duty. The first part of it, as to the special seasons of temptation. 1.
The season ; in unusual prosperity. The 2. In a slumber of grace. 3.
A season of great spiritual enjoyments. The 4. A season of self-confi-
dence • 481
CHAP. VII.
Several acts of watchfulness against temptation proposed. Watch the heart.
What it is to be watched in and about. Of the snares lying in men's natural
tempers. Of peculiar lusts. Of occasions suited to them. Watching to
lay in provision against temptation. Directions for watchfulness m the first
approaches of temptation. Directions after entering into temptations 486
CHAP. VIII.
The last general direction, Rev. iii. 10. watch against temptation by constant
keeping the word of Christ's patience, what that word is ; how it is kept ;
Low the keeping of it will keep us from the power of temptation 494
CHAP. IX.
General exhortation to the duty prescribed 508
THE DOCTRINE
OF THE
SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED.
CHAP. XI.
The entrance into an answer to Mr. G.'s arguments against the doctrine of
the saints' perseverance : his sixth argument about the usefulness of the
doctrine under consideration to the work of the ministry, proposed. His
proof of the minor proposition ; considered and answered. Many pre-
tenders to promote godlinessby false doctrines. Mr. G .^ s common interest
in this argument. His proofs of the usefulness of his doctrine unto the
promotion of godliness ; considered and answered. The inconsequence of
his arguing discovered. The doctrine by him opposed, mistaken , ignorantly
or wilfully. Objectiojis proposed by Mr. G. to himself to be answered.
The objection as proposed, disowned. Certainty of the love of God, in what
sense a motive to obedience. The doctrine qfapostucy denies the unchange-
ableness of God's love to believers : placeth qualifications in the room of
persons. How the doctrine of perseverance promiseth the continuance of
the love of God to believers. Certainty of reward, encouraging to regular
actions. Promises made to persons qualified, not suspended upon those
qualifications. Means appointed of God for the accomplishment of a de-
termined end, certain. Means not always conditions. Mr. G.'s strange
inference concerning the Scripture, considered. The word of God by him
undervalued, and subjected to the judgment of vain men, as toils truth and
authority. The pretended reason of the former proceeding discussed. The
Scripture the sole judge of what is to be ascribed to God, and believed con-
cerning him. The doctrine of the saints' perseverance, falsely imposed on,
and vindicated. Mr. G.'s next objection made to himself, against his doc-
trine: its unseasonableness, as to the argument in hand, demonstrated.
No assurance of the love of God, nor peace left the saints by the doctrine
of apostacy. The ground of peace and assurance by it taken away.
Ground of Paul's consolation ; 1 Cor. ix. 27. The meaning of the word
dSoKifiog. Another plea agaiyist the doctrine attempted to be proved by
Mr. G. That attempt considered. Not the weakness of the flesh naturally,
but the strength of lust spiritually pretended. The cause of sin in the
saints farther discussed. The power ascribed by Mr. G. to men, for the
strengthening and making willing the Spirit in them, considered. The
aptness of the saints to perform, what, and whence. The opposition they
have in them thereunto. Gospel obedience how easy. The conclusion, An-»
swerto chap. xiii. of his book proposed.
The argument, wherein Mr. Goodwin exposeth the doctrine
under contest to the trial, concerning its usefulness, as tq
VOL. VII. B
2 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
the promotion of godliness, in the hearts and ways of them
by whom it is received, he thus proposeth. chap. 13. sect.
32. p. 333. 'That doctrine, which is according to godliness,
and whose natural and proper tendency is to promote god-
liness in the hearts and lives of men, is evangelical, and of
unquestionable comportance with the truth ; such is the
doctrine which teacheth the possibility of the saints' declin-
ing, both totally and finally :' ergo.
Of this argument he goeth about to establish the respec-
tive propositions, so as to make them serviceable to the en-
forcement of the conclusion he aimeth at, for the exaltation
of the Helena, whereon he is enamoured : and for the major
proposition (about which, rightly understood, we are remote
from contesting with him or any else, and will willingly and
cheerfully at any time drive the cause in difference to issue,
upon the singular testimony of the truth wrapped up in it)
he thus confirmeth it.
'The reason of the major proposition, though the truth of
it needed no light but its own to be seen by, is, because the
gospel itself is a doctrine which is according unto godliness,
a ministry of godliness ; is a doctrine, truth, and mystery,
calculated, contrived, and framed by God with a singular
aptness, and choiceness of ingredients, for the advancement
of godliness in the world ; therefore what particular doctrine
is of the same Spirit, tendency, and import, must needs be a
natural branch thereof, and hath perfect accord with it ; this
proposition then is unquestionable.'
Ans. According to the principles formerly laid down, I
have something to say (though not to the proposition itself,
as in the terms it lieth, but) only as to the fixedness and
staidness of it, that it may not be a nose of wax, to be
turned to and fro at every one's pleasure, to serve their turns ;
for what sort of men is there in the world professing the
name of Christ, that do not lay claim to an interest in this
proposition, for the confirmation of their opinions. It is but
as a common exordium in rhetoric, a useless flourish ; the
doctrine which is according to godliness, that is, which the
Scripture teacheth to be true, and to serve for the promotion
of godliness (not what doctrine soever any dark brain-sick
creature doth apprehend so to do), in the state and condition
wherein the saints of God walk with him, is a branch of the
EXPLAINED AND CONFHIMED. 3
g^ospel : I add, in the state and condition, wherein we walk
with God 5 for in the state of innocency, the doctrine of the
law, as a covenant of life, was of singular aptness, and use-
fulness to promote obedience, which yet is not therefore any
branch or part of the gospel, but opposite to it, and destruc-
tive of it. All the advantage then Mr. Goodwin can expect
from this argument to his cause, dependeth upon the proof
of the minor proposition, which also must be effected in
answerable proportion to the restrictions and qualifications
given to the major, or the whole will be void and of none
effect. That is, he must prove it by the testimony of God,
to be according to godliness, and not give us in (by a pure
begging of the thing in question), that it is so in his appre-
hension, and according to the principles whereon he doth
proceed, in the teaching and asserting of godliness. Mr.
Goodwin knows that there is no less difference between him
and us, about the nature and causes of godliness, than there
is about the perseverance of the saints ; and therefore his
asserting any doctrine to be suited to the promotion of god-
liness, that assertion being proportioned to his other hypo-
thesis of his own, wherein we accord not with him, and in
particular to his notions of the causes and nature of godli-
ness, with which conceptions of his we have no communion,
it cannot be of any weight with us, unless he prove his affir-
mation according to the limitations before expressed ; now
this he attempteth in the words following:
'What doctrine,' saith he, 'can there be more proper and
powerful to promote godliness, in the hearts and lives of men,
than that, which on the one hand, promiseth a crown of bless-
edness and eternal glory to those that live godlily without
declining; and on the other hand, threateneth the vengeance
of hell fire eternally against those, that shall turn aside into
profaneness, and not return by repentance : whereas the doc-
trine which promiseth, and that with all possible certainty
and assurance, all fulness of blessedness and glory, to those
that shall at any time be godly, though they shall the very
next day or hour degenerate, and turn loose, and profane;
and continue never so long in such a course, is most mani-
festly destructive to godliness, and encouraging above mea-
sure unto profaneness.'
Jns. There are two parts of this discourse: the one
B 2
4 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS PERSEVERANCE
(KaraaKtvaaTiKri, or) confirmatory of his own thesis ; the other
(avaCTKfuaoTtK?), or) destructive of that which he opposeth :
for the first, it is upon the matter all that he produceth for
the confirmation of his minor proposition, wherein any sin-
gular concernment of his opinion doth lie : now that being,
in a sound sense, the common inheritance of all that profess
the truth, under what deceits or mistakes soever; the sum
of what is here insisted on, is, that the doctrine he maintain-
eth concerning 'the possibility of the saints' defection, pro-
iT\iseth a crown to them that continue in obedience, and
threateneth vengeance of fire to them that turn to profane-
ness,' which taken as a proof of his former assertion is liable
to some small exceptions. As,
1. That this doth not at all prove the doctrine to be a
branch or parcel of the gospel, it being, as it standeth seve-
rally by itself, the pure tenor of the covenant of works,
which we confess to have been of singular importance for
the propagation of godliness and holiness, in them to whom
it was given, or with whom it was made ; being given and
made for that very end and purpose ; but that this alone by
itself is a peculiar branch or parcel of the gospel, or that
it is of such singular importance for the carrying on of gos-
pel-obedience, as so by itself proposed, that should here
have been proved.
2. As it is also a part of the gospel declaring the faith-
fulness of God, and the end and issue of the proposal of the
gospel unto men, and of their receiving or refusing of it, so
it is altogether foreign to the doctrine of Mr. Goodwin un-
der contest : and he might as well have said, that the doc-
trine of apostacy is of singular import for the promotion of
holiness, because the doctrine of justification by faith is so ;
for what force of consequence is betwixt these two? That
God is a rewarder of them that obey him, and a punisher of
them that rebel against him, is an incentive to obedience :
therefore the doctrine that true believers united lo Jesus
Christ, may utterly fall out of the favour of God, and turn
from their obedience, and be damned for ever, there beino-
no promise of God for their preservation, is also an incentive
to holiness.
3. What virtue soever there may be in this truth, for the
furtherance and promotion of holiness in the world, our doc-
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 0
trine layeth as clear claim to it as yours ; that is, there is
not any thing in the least in it inconsistent therewithal ;
we grant, God threateneth the vengeance of hell fire unto
those that turn aside from their profession of holiness, mto
profaneness, the gospel itself becoming thereby unto them
* a savour of death unto death ;' the Lord thereby proclaim-
ing to all the world, that the ' wages of sin' and infidelity
is death, and that 'he that believeth not, shall be damned ;'
but that any thing can hence be inferred for the apostacy of
true believers, or how this assertion cometh to be appro-
priated to that doctrine, we see not.
The latter part of this discourse, whereby its author aim-
eth to exclude the doctrine hitherto asserted by us, from
any claim laid to usefulness for the promotion of godliness,
is either a mistake of it, through ignorance of the opinion
he hath undertaken to oppose, or a wilful perverting of it,
contrary to his own science and conscience. Is that the
doctrine you oppose? Is it so proposed by those who
through grace have laboured to explain and vindicate it ?
Doth not the main weight of the doctrine turn on this hinge,
that God hath promised to his saints, true believers, such
supplies of the Spirit and grace, as that they shall never
degenerate unto such loose and profane courses, as are de-
structive to godliness? Doubtless that doctrine is of a most
spotless untainted innocency, which its adversaries dare not
venture to strangle, before they have violently and treacher-
ously deflowered it.
And thus Mr. Goodwin leaveth his arguments in the
dust, like the ostriches' eggs under the feet of men, to be
trampled on with ease.
The residue of this discourse onwards to the next argu-
ment, being spent in the answering of pretended objections,
put in against himself in the behalf of the doctrine of perse-
verance, not at all called out by the import of his present
arguments and discourses, I might pass them over: but in-
asmuch as that which is spoken thereunto, tendeth to the
farther clearing of what formerly hath been evidenced, con-
cerning the suitableness of the doctrine contended for, unto
the promotion of holiness, I shall farther consider what he
draweth forth on this occasion. Sect. 33. he giveth us an
objection ; and a fourfold answer thereunto, pp. 333—335.
6 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVERANCE
That which he calleth an objection he layeth down in these
words :
' If it be objected and said : yea, but assurance of the
unchangeableness of God's love towards him that is godly,
is both a more effectual and persuading- motive unto godli-
ness, and more encouraging to a persevering in godliness,
than a doubtfulness or uncertainty, whether God will be con-
stant in his affection, to such a man or no ; certainty of re-
ward is more encouraging unto action, than uncertainty.'
Ans. If any one hath been so weak, as to make use of
this plea in behalf of that doctrine it seemeth to defend
(which I scarcely believe), it will, I doubt not, be an easy
task to undertake, that he shall be no more admitted, or en-
tertained, as an advocate in this cause. The assurance of
the unchangeableness of God's love to them that are godly,
is but onie part of the doctrine in hand, and that such as
may perhaps be common to it with that which is brought into
competition with it. It is the assurance of the unchange-
ableness of God's love to a man, to keep him up to godli-
ness, to preserve him in that state and condition of holiness
to the end, and of the certainty of the continuance of the
love of God unto him. on that account and in that way, that
is that great gospel motive to obedience, wherein, as its pe-
culiar, our doctrine glorieth, as hath formerly been mani-
fested. Perhaps Mr. Goodwin doth not think, that any man
is bound to lay more blocks in his own way, than he judgeth
himself well aisle to remove; and therefore he framed that
objection so, that he might be sure to return at least a spe-
cious answer thereunto, and this he attempteth accordingly,
and telleth us in his first paragraph three things :
1. 'That the doctrine teaching the saints' defection, doth
also maintain the unchangeableness of the love of God, to
them that are godly.'
Am. But what love (I pray you) is that, which when it
might prevent it, will yet suffer those godly ones, to become
such ungodly villains and wretches, as that it sliall be ut-
terly impossible for the Lord to continue his love to them''
Is the love you mention indeed a love to their persons, or
only an approbation of their duties and qualifications ? If the
first, whence is it that God ceaseth at any time to love them?
Doth he change, and alter his love like the sons of men ? Why,
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 7
they change, therefore he changeth also. That God changeth
not, and therefore we, who are subject to change, are yet
preserved from being consumed, we have heard ; but that
upon the change that is in men, God also should change, we
are yet to be instructed ; and the immutability of God, hath
taken greater hold upon our understandings and in our hearts,
than that we should easily receive any thing so diametri-
cally opposite thereunto. If the love mentioned be only an
approbation of the qualifications that are in them, and of the
duties that they do perform, then is it no more a love to
them or to their persons, than it is to the persons of the most
profligate wretches that live. The object is duty, solely
wherever it may be found, and not any person at all ; for it
is an act of God's approving, not purposing or determining,
will. This is not our sense of the continuance of the love
of God to them that are godly ; so that there is no com-
parison betwixt the doctrines under contest, as to the assert-
ing of the love of God to believers, or to them that are
godly. Wherefore, he saith,
2. 'That the doctrine he opposeth, promiseth God's love
and the unchangeable continuance of it unto men, though
they change to profaneness.' Though this is said over and
over a hundred times, yet 1 cannot believe it, because the
doctrine openly affirmeth the continuance of the love of
God to them that are godly, to be effectually and eventually
preventive of any such profaneness, as is inconsistent there-
withal ; and therefore much more vain is that, which he af-
firmeth in the third place :
3. Namely, That * the doctrine of the perseverance of the
saints, doth not so much absolutely promise the love of God
to them that are godly, as it promiseth it conditionally to
them that are profane, in case they have been godly ; that
is, it teacheth that God promiseth the certain continuance
of his love to him that is godly, on condition he cease to
be so and turn profane.'
'Claudite jamrivos pueri' we have enough of this
already.
2. He addeth yet, ' Neither is certainty of reward, in
every sense or kind, more encouraging unto action, than un-
certainty in some kind ; to promise with all possible assur-
ance, the same reward or prize to him that shall not run in
8 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
the race, which is promised to him that shall run, is not
more encouraging unto men, thus to run, than to promise it
conditionally upon their running, which is a promising of
it with uncertainty in this respect, because it is uncertain
whether men will run in the said race, or no ; and conse-
quently, whether they shall receive the said prize or no,
upon such a promise. Uncertainty of reward is then, and
in such cases, more encouraging unto action than certainty,
when the certainty of obtaining or receiving it, is suspended
upon the act, not when it is assured unto men whether they
act or no.'
Ans. 1. Persuade your servants, your labourers, if you
can, of that great encouragement that lies in the uncertainty
of a reward, above that which may be had from an assur-
ance thereof: we are not as yet of that mind ; and yet,
2. We do not lay the only motive unto obedience, ten-
dered by the doctrine we contest for, on the certainty of
reward which it asserteth ; which yet is such, that without
it all other must needs be of little purpose ; but it hath also
other advantageous influences into the promotion of holi-
ness, which in part have been insisted on.
3. It seemeth, we say that God promiseth 'a reward to
them that shall not run a race,' because we maintain, that
he promiseth it to none, but those who do run in a race ;
promising withal to give them strength, power, and will,
that they may do so to the end.
2. For the close, which amounteth to this, that the cer-
tainty of reward, when it is uncertain (for so it is made to
be when it is suspended on actions that are uncertain) is
more encouraging to action, than certainty of reward not so
suspended ; 1 shall add only (because I know not indeed
how this discourse hangeth on the business under considera-
tion), that we neither suspend the certainty of reward upon
our actions in the sense intimated, neither do we say, that
it is assured to men whether they act or no ; but say, that
the reward which is of grace, through the unchangeable love
of God, shall be given to them that act in holiness, and
through the same love shall all believers be kept to such an
acting of holiness, as God thinketh good to carry them out
unto, for the ' fulfilling of all the good pleasure of his good-
ness in them, and making them jneet for the inheritance of
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 9
his saints in light ;' we do not think mediums designed of
God for the accomplishment of any end, are such con-
ditions of the end, that it is suspended on them in uncer-
tainty, in respect of the issue before its accomplishment.
Neither do we grant, nor can it be proved, that God assigneth
any medium for the accomplishment of a determinate end
(such as we have proved the salvation of all believers to be),
and leave it in such a condition, as that not only it shall be
effected and produced, suitably to the nature of the imme-
diate cause of which it is, whether free, necessary, or con-
tingent, but also shall be so far uncertain, as that it may or
may not, be wrought and accomplished.
The former part of this third paragraph is but a repeti-
tion of an assertion, which upon the credit of his own single
testimony, we have had often tendered ; viz. ' That an as-
surance given him that is godly, of the love of God, not
depending on any thing in him, which it is uncertain whe-
ther he will perform or no, is no motive to men to continue
in the ways of holiness.' This (as I said before) I cannot
close withal ; that that which is a motive to faith and love,
and eminently suited to the stirring of them up, and setting
them on work, is also a motive to the obedience, which is
called love and obedience of faith, hath been declared. If
there be any thing of the new and heavenly nature in the
soul, any quality or disposition of a child therein, what can
be more effectual to promote or advance the fear, honour,
and reverence of God in it, than an assurance of his Spirit
to continue and preserve them in those ways which are well
pleasing unto him. It is confessed, that in many promises
of acceptation here and reward hereafter, the things and
duties, that are the means and ways of enjoying the one,
and attaining the other, are mentioned not as conditions of
the grace and love of God to them, to whom the promises
are made, as though they should depend on any thing of
their uncertain accomplishment as hath been declared, but
only as the means and ways, which God hath appointed for
men to use, and walk in unto those ends, and which he
hath absolutely promised to work in them, and to continue
to them.
4. The close of this paragraph, in the fourth place, de-
serveth a little more clear consideration, it containing an
10 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
assertion which some would not believe, when it was told
them, and hath stumbled not a few at the repetition of it.
Thus then he proceedeth.
' Besides, whether any such assurance of the unchange-
ableness of the love of God towards him that is godly, as
the objection speaketh of, can be effectually, and upon suf-
ficient grounds cleared and proved, is very questionable, yea,
I conceive there is more reason to judge otherwise than so.
Yea, that which is more, I verily believe, that in case any
such assurance of the unchangeableness of God's love, were
to be found in, or could regularly be deduced from, the
Scriptures, it were a just ground, to any intelligent and con-
sidering man, to question their authority, and whether they
were from God or no ; for, that a God infinitely righteous
and holy, should irreversibly assure the immortal and unde-
filed inheritance of his grace and favour, unto any creature
whatsoever; so that though this creature should prove never
so abominable in his sight, never so outrageously and des-
perately wicked and profane, he should not be at liberty
to withhold his inheritance from him, is a saying doubtless
too hard for any man, who rightly understandeth and con-
sidereth the nature of God, to bear.'
Ans. The love mentioned in the foregoing objection, is
that which God beareth to them that are godly in Jesus Christ,
exerting itself partly in his gracious acceptation of their
persons in the Son of his love, partly in giving to them of
his Holy Spirit and grace, so that they shall never depart
utterly and wickedly from him, and forsake him, or reject
him from being their God. Whether an assurance of this
love may on good grounds, be given to believers, hath been
already considered, and the affirmative, I hope in some good
measure confirmed. The farther demonstration of it await-
ing its proper season, which the will of God shall give unto
it. This Mr. Goodwin saith to him is questionable ; yea, I
suppose it is with him out of question, that it cannot be,
else surely he would not have taken so much pains in la-
bouring to disprove it; and that this is his resolved judg-
ment, he manifesteth in the next words, ' 1 verily believe,
that in case any such assurance were to be found in,' &c.
That is, * Si Deus homini non placuerit, Deus non erit.'
What more contemptible could the Pagans of old have
EXPLAINED AND CONFtrMED. IJ
spoken of their dunghill deities, with their amphibolous
oracles? were it not fitter language for the Indian conju-
rors, who beat and afflict their hellish gods, if they answer
not according to their desires ? The whole authority of God,
and of his word in the Scriptures, is here cast down before
the consideration of an intelligent man (forsooth) or * a vain
man, that would be wise, but is like the wild ass's colt ;'
and this intelligent man, it seems, may contend to reject
the word of God, and yet be accounted most wise ; of old,
the prophet thought not so. To what end is any farther
dispute ? If the Scripture speaketh not to Mr. Goodwin's
mind (for doubtless he is an intelligent and considering
man), he seeth sufficient ground to question its authority.
By what way possible, any man can moi^e advance himself
into the throne of God, than by entertaining such thoughts
and conceptions as these, I know not. An intelligent man
is supposed to have from himself, and his own wisdom and
intelligence, considerations of God's nature and perfection,
by which he is to regulate and measure all things, that are
affirmed of God, or his will, in the Scripture. If what is so
delivered suit these conceptions of his, that Scripture where-
in it is delivered may pass for canonical and authentic ; if
otherwise, 'eadem facilitate rejicitur qua asseritur;' which
was sometimes spoken of traditionals ; but it seems may now
be extended to the written word. The Scripture is sup-
posed to hold out things contrary to what this intelligent
man hath conceived and considered, and this is asserted as
a just ground to question its authority. And if this be not
a progress in the contempt of the word of God to whatever
yet Papists, Socinians, or enthusiasts have attempted, I am
deceived. ' To the law and to the testimony,' with all the
conceptions and notions of the most intelligent man, 'if
they answer not to this rule, it is because there is no truth
in them.'
But he addeth the reason of this bold assertion : for,
saith he, ' That a God infinitely righteous and holy, should
irreversibly,' &,c.
A?is. Neither yet doth this at all mend the matter. Nei-
ther doth the particular instance given alter at all, but con-
firm, the first general assertion : viz. that ' if there be any
thing in the Scriptures contrary to those thoughts of God,
12 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVERANCE
which an intelligent man (without the Scripture) doth con-
ceive of him, he hath just grounds to question their autho-
rity,' which wholly casts down the word of God from its ex-
cellency, and setteth a poor, dark, blind creature, under the
notion of an intelligent man, at liberty from his subjection
thereunto, making him his own rule and guide as to his ap-
prehensions of God and his will : and is it possible that such
a thought should enter into the heart of a man fearing God,
and reverencing his word, which God hath magnified above all
his name ? There is scarce any one truth in the whole book of
God, but some men, passing in the world for intelligent and
considering men, do look upon it and profess it to be un-
worthy of an infinitely righteous and holy God. So do the
Socinians think of the doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ,
the great treasure of the church ; at the rate that men pass
at in this world, it will be difficult to exclude many of them
from the number of intelligent and considering men ; and
are they not all absolved here by Mr. G. in this principle,
from bowing to the authority of God in the Scriptures,
having just ground to question, whether they are from God
or no. The case is the same with the Papists and others in
sundry particulars. Frame the supposition how you wnll,
in things never so uncouth and strange, yet if this be the
position, that in things which appear so to men, upon their
consideration, if any thing in the Scripture be held out, or
may be deduced from this to the contrary, they are at liberty
from submitting their understandings to them, and may ar-
raign them as false and supposititious, their whole divine
authority is unquestionably cast down to the ground, and
trampled on by the feet of men. Km ravra /uiv Trpog ravra.
God will take care for the vindication of the honour of his
word.
2. The opposition here made by Mr. Goodwin, and im-
posed on his adversaries, is, as hath been shewed, wretchedly
false, not once spoken or owned by them with whom he hath
to do, not having the least colour given unto it by the doc-
trine they maintain ; yea, is diametrically opposite there-
unto. The main of what they teach, and which Mr. Good-
win hath opposed in this treatise, endeavouring to answer '
that eminent place of 1 John iii. 9. with many others pro-
duced and argued to that purpose, is, that God will, ac-
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 13
cording to the tenor of the covenant of grace, so write his
law in the hearts of his, and put his fear in their inward
parts, that they shall never depart from him, so as to become
desperately and outrageously profane, but be preserved such
to the end, as that the Lord with the greatest advantage of
glory to his infinite wisdom, righteousness, and holiness,
may irreversibly assure the immortal inheritance of his love
and favour unto them. So that Mr. Goodwin's discourse to
the end of this section, concerning the continuance of the
love of God to them that are wicked, with an equal measure
of favour to them that are godly, according to this doctrine, is
vain and grossly sophistical, and such as he himself knoweth
to be so. To say, ' every one that doth evil is good in the sight
of the Lord, and that he delighteth in him,' that is, he ap-
proveth wicked and ungodly men, we know is sufficiently
dishonourable to him: but yet to say that he delighteth in
his church and people, washed and made holy in the blood
of Christ, notwithstanding their failings, or their being
sometime overtaken with great sins, when he pleaseth, in an
extraordinary way, for ends best known to himself, to per-
mit them to fall into them (which yet he doth seldom and
rarely), is that which himself affirmeth and ascribeth to him-
self in innumerable places of Scripture (if their authority
may pass unquestioned), to the praise of the glory of his
grace. But it seemeth, if we take any care, that Mr. Good-
win may not call the authority of the Scriptures into question
(being fully resolved, that the doctrine of the saints' perse-
verance is unworthy of a holy and righteous God), we must
give over all attempts of farther deducing it from them ; but
yet for the present, we shall consider what he hath farther
to object against it.
Sect. 34. He farther objecteth against himself and his
doctrine, in the behalf of that which he doth oppose in these
words :
' It is possible, that yet some will farther object against
the argument in hand ; unless the saints be assured of the
perpetuity of their standing in the grace and favour of God,
they must needs be under fears of falling away, and so of pe-
rishing ; and fear we know is of a discouraging and enfee-
bling nature ; an enemy unto such actions, which men of
confidence and courage are apt to undertake.'
14 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
Ans. What this objection maketh in this place, I know
not; it neither asserteth any eminency in the doctrine by
Mr. Goodwin opposed, as to the promotion of godliness,
nor immediately challengeth that which he doth maintain of
a contrary tendency, but only intimateth, that the saints'
consolation and peace is weakened by unnecessary fears,
such as his opinion is apt to ingenerate in them ; but how»-
ever thus far I own it, as to the main of the observation in
hand, that the doctrine of the apostacy of believers is apt
and suited to cut the saints of God and heirs of the promise
short of that strong consolation, which he is so abundantly
willing that they should receive, and to fill their souls and
perplex their consciences with cares, fears, and manifold
entanglements, suited to weaken their faith and love, and
alienate their hearts from that delight in God, which they
are called, and otherwise would be carried forth, unto. They
being all of them in some measure acquainted with the
strength, subtilty, and power of indwelling sin, the advan-
tages of Satan in his manifold temptations, the eminent suc-
cess which they see every day the ' principalities and
powers in heavenly places,' which they wrestle withal, to have
against them, and being herewithal taught, that there is nei-
ther purpose nor promise of God for their preservation, that
there is nothing to that purpose in the covenant of grace;
the consideration of their condition must of necessity fill
them with innumerable perplexities, and make them their
own tormentors all their days; thus far, I say, I own the ob-
jection; that it is not properly courage or confidence, but
faith, love, and reverence, that are the principles of our ac-
tions in walking with God, hath been declared.
But what saith Mr. Goodwin to the objection, as by him-
self laid down? beside what he relateth, of his conquest of
it in other places, he addeth,
' That the saints, notwithstanding the possibility of their
final falling away, have, or may have, such an assurance of
the perpetuity of their standing, in the grace and favour of
God, as may exclude all fear, at least that which is of a
discouraging or enfeebling nature ; the apostle, as we have
formerly shewed, lived at a very excellent rate both of cou-
rage and confidence ; notwithstanding he knew that it was
possible for him to become a reprobate ; the assurance he had.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 15
that upon a diligent use of those means, which he knew as-
suredly God would vouchsafe unto him, he should prevent
his being a reprobate, was a golden foundation unto him, of
that confidence and courage wherein he equalized the holy
angels themselves.'
Ans. The grounds asserted by Mr, Goodwin, on which
believers may build the assurance pretended, of the perpe-
tuity of their standing in the grace and favour of God, not-
withstanding the possibility of their defection (the asser-
tion whereof costs no less, than the denying of all, or any
influence from the purpose, promises, covenant, or oath of
God, or mediation of Christ, into their preservation), I have
formerly considered : and manifested them to be so exceed-
ing unable to bear any such building of confidence upon,
as is pretended, that it is almost a miracle how any thoughts
of such a structure on such quicksands, could ever find
place in the mind of a man any thing seriously acquainted
with the ways of God ; the whole of the saints' preservation
in the love and favour of God (as it is also expressed in this
section) is resolved into men's self-considerations, and en-
deavours. Being weary it seemeth of leaning on the power
of God, to be kept thereby unto eternal salvation, men begin
to trust to themselves, and their own abilities, to be their own
keepers: but what will they do in the end thereof? The
sum of what Mr. Goodwin hath formerly said and what he
repeateth again to the end of this section, is, ' men need not
fear their falling away, though it is possible, seeing they
may easily prevent it, if they will ;' expressions sufficiently
contemptive of the grace of God, and the salvation that God
assureth us thereby ; an assertion, which those ancients,
which Mr. Goodwin laboureth to draw into communion with
him, would have rejected, and cast out as heretical. Man's
ability thus to preserve himself in the grace and favour of
God to the end, is either from himself, or from the grace of
God? If from himself, let us know, what that ability is,
and wherein it doth consist, and how he comes ■ y it ? Christ
telleth us, that "without him we can do nothing;' and the
apostle, ' that we are not sufficient of ourselves to think a
good thought, but that all our sufficiency is of God :' so that
this self-ability for preservation, extendeth not to the think-
ing a good thought : indeed is nothing. Is it from the grace
IG DOCTRIXE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
of God? Then the assurance of it must be, either because
God promised absolutely, so to ' work in him to will and to
do of his own good pleasure,' as that he should certainly be
preserved, which you will not say (as I suppose), or because
he will so afford him his grace, as that lie may make use of
it to the end proposed, if he please : but now, what assur-
ance hath he that he shall so make use of his grace, as to
make it effectual for the end designed ? And is this good
use of grace, of himself, or of grace also ? If of himself, it is
nothing ; as was shewed from that of our Saviour ; John xv.
5. Neither can a man promise himself much assistance, from
the ability of doing nothing at all. If you shall say it is of
grace, the same question ariseth as formerly, manifesting
that there is not the least assurance imaginable, of our con-
tinuance in the grace and favour of God, but what ariseth
from his faithful promises (efficaciously overcoming all in-
terveniences) that we shall so do.
2. He telleth us, that * Paul lived at an excellent rate of
assurance, and yet knew that it was possible for him to be a
reprobate ;' I confess indeed he lived at an excellent rate of
assurance, which he manifesteth himself to have received
upon such principles and foundations, as were common to
him with all true believers ; Rom. viii. 32 — 35. That it was
possible in respect of the event, that he might have been a
reprobate who was chosen from eternity, is not proved. He
saith indeed, 1 Cor. ix. 27. ' I keep my body in subjection,
lest by any means I should be found 'ASo/c<juoc.' That by
aSoKt/uoc there, any more is intended than not approved or
accepted in that service he had in hand, Mr. Goodwin la-
boureth not to evince ; and if that be the sense of the words
(as the scope of the whole manifesteth it to be), then all that
Paul there expresseth is, that he endeavoured always to ap-
prove himself, and by all means, an acceptable workman, not
to be rejected, or disallowed in the labour of preaching the
gospel which he had undertaken ; and we acknowledge that
this thought and contrivance may well become him, who
liveth at the greatest rate of assurance that God affordeth
to any here below; yea, that such thoughts and endeavours
do naturally and genuinely flow from the assurance of the
love of God we also grant. But yet, supposing that being
a reprobate, by a metonymy of the effect, may here signify
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 17
to be damned, how doth this prove, that it was possible in
respect of the event, that he should be damned ? Why, be-
cause he laboured that he might iiot be so ; that is, no man
can use the means of avoiding any thing, but he must be un-
certain, whether in the use of those means it may be avoided
or no; this looketh like begging the thing in question; Paul
labouring and endeavouring in the ways expressed, evidently
manifesteth such a labour and endeavour, in such a way, to
be the appointed means of avoiding the condition of being
adoKijuog. That there is an infallible connexion betwixt the
use of such means, and the deliverance from that state, is
proved. But that Paul had not assurance of the sufficiency
of the grace of God with him, for his certain use of those
means, and certain infallible deliverance from that end, no-
thing in the least is intimated in the text, or brought in from
any place else, by Mr. Goodwin, to give colour thereunto.
But of this Scripture at large afterward.
Supposing himself to have fairly quit himself of the for-
mer plea, in the behalf of our doctrine, as by himself pro-
posed, he addeth another pretension in the behalf of the
same plea formerly produced, which he attempteth also to
take out of the way, having in some measure prepared it, in
his proposal of it for an easy removal. Thus then he pro-
ceedeth ; * To pretend that the weakness of the flesh in the
best of saints considered, and their aptness to go astray,
they must needs lie under many troublesome and tormenting
fears of perishing, unless they have some promise or assur-
ance from God to support them, notwithstanding any de-
clinings or goings astray incident unto them, yet they shall
not lose his favour, or perish, is to pretend nothing but
what hath been thoroughly answered already, especially in
chap. 9.'
Alls. Before I can admit this plea to be put in, in our be-
half, I shall crave leave a little to rectify, and point it more
sharply against the doctrine it aimeth to oppose. I say then,
1. It is not the 'weakness of the flesh,' or the feebleness
and disability of our natural man to act in, orgo through with,
great duties and trials, but the strength and wilfulness of the
flesh, i. e. of the corrupted man, even in the best of saints,
continually provoking and seducing them with sometimes
an insuperable efficacy, leading them captive, and working
VOL. VII. C
18 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVERANCE
in them continually, with a thousand baits and wiles (as
hath been in part discovered), labouring to turn them aside
from God, that fills the saints of God with tormenting, per-
plexing fears of perishing, and must needs do so, if they have
no promise of God for their preservation ; besides all this
strength and wilfulness of the flesh, they are exposed to the
assaults of other most dreadful adversaries, wrestling with
principalities and powers in heavenly places, and contending
wuth the world, as it lieth under the curse, all their days ; to
refer all the oppositions that believers meet withal, in the
course of their obedience, and which may fill them with fears
that they shall one day perish, if not supported by an al-
mighty hand, and * kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation/ unto the weakness of the flesh, which, in the
place where the expression is used, plainly pointeth at the
disability of the natural man to abide in, and go through
with great duties and trials, is a most vain and empty con-
templation. Those who have to do with God in the matter
of gospel obedience, and know what it is indeed * to serve
him under temptations,' can tell you another manner of story :
and among them, Mr. Goodwin could do so to the purpose,
when his thoughts were not prejudiced by any biassing opi-
nions that must be leaned unto.
2. We do not say that the saints of God, in the condi-
tion mentioned, stand in need of any promise of God, that
notwithstanding any declinings or goings astray incident
unto them, they shall not lose his favour or perish ; but that
they shall have such a presence of his Spirit, and sufficiency
of his grace with them all their days, that they shall never,
notwithstanding all the oppositions and difficulties they meet
withal, utterly fail in their faith, nor be prevailed against, to
depart wickedly and utterly from God. And now I see not
but that supposing that it is necessary, that the saints be de-
livered from troublesome perplexing fears of perishing, and
that God hath madeprovision for that end and purpose, which
that he hath, seems to be granted by our author : I say, I
cannot see but that this plea, striketh at the very heart of
the apostacy of saints, though not very fitly brought in, in
this place, in reference to the argument that occasioned it ;
but our author, knowing his faculty to lie more in evading
what is objected against him, than in urging arg^uraents for
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 19
his own opinion, doth every where upon the first proposal
of any argument, divert to other considerations and to the
answering of objections, though perhaps not at all to the
plea in hand, nor any way occasioned by it. But what saith
he now, in defence of his dearly beloved, thus attempted, to
vindicate it from this sore imputation of robbing and de-
spoiling the saints of God of their peace and assurance
purchased for them at no less rate than the blood of the
Lord Jesus ? He telleth you then three.things :
1. * That the weakness of the flesh, or aptness of miscar-
rying through this, is no reasonable ground of fear to any
true believer, of his perishing : considering that no man
loseth, or forfeiteth the grace and favour of God, through
sins of weakness or infirmity : it is only the strength of sin,
and corruption in men, that exposeth to the danger of losing
the love of God.'
Ans. The latter part of these words plainly discovers the
vanity of the former, as produced for any such end and pur-
pose as that in hand : for though I willingly grant, that that
which is termed the weakness of the flesh, is enough to make
any man whatever fear, that he shall not hold out in the
course of his obedience to the end, if he have no promise of
supportment and preservation by an almighty power (not-
withstanding it is affirmed, that it draweth men only to sins
of weakness or infirmity, which I thought had not been
called so from weakness of the flesh, but of grace in believers)
yet it is the strength, the power, the law, the subtilty of the
flesh, or indwelling sin, that is the matter of our plea in this
case. Not that which Paul gloried in, even his infirmity, but
that which made him cry out,* * Oh ! wretched man that I
am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death ;' and
from the distress by reason whereof he found no deliverance,
but only in the assured love of God in Jesus Christ. So that,
notwithstanding this reply, shaped to fortify the minds of
men against their failings, upon the account of the weakness
of grace, rather than of the flesh (which yet it is not able to
do, for if there be no promise to the contrary, why may not
the principle which carrieth men forth to lesser, carry them
also forth to greater, and more provoking sins, what boun-
daries will you prescribe unto these sins of infirmity ?) The
* Rom. vii. viii. 1,
c 2
20 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
pretension from the strength of the flesh (yea, from the
weakness of it) holdeth good against the saints' establish-
ment in peace and assurance, upon the account of their being
destitute of any promise of preservation by God.
2. ' If the saints be willing/ saith he, ' to strengthen the
Spirit in them, and make him willing proportionably to the
means prescribed, and vouchsafed unto them by God for
such a purpose, this will fully balance the weakness of the
flesh, and prevent the miscarriages and breaking out hereof;
this I say then (saith the apostle). Walk in the Spirit, and ye
shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh ; and again. If you be
led by the Spirit you are not under the law, and consequently,
are in no danger of losing the favour of God, or of perishing
for such sins, which under the conduct of the Spirit you are
subject unto.'
Ans. But that all now must be taken in good part, and
nothing called strange or uncouth, since we have passed the
pikes in the last section, I should somewhat admire at the
doctrine of this paragraph ; for,
1. Here is a willing in reference to a great spiritual duty
supposed in men, antecedent to any assistance of him who
'vvorketh to will and to do of his own good pleasure.' What
he worketh, he worketh by the Spirit. But this is a willing
in us, distinct from, and antecedent to, the appearing of the
Spirit for the strengthening thereof.
2. That whereas we have hitherto imagined that the
Spirit strengtheneth the saints, and that their supportment
had been from him, as we partly also before declared (at
least we did our mind to be so persuaded), it seemeth they
' strengthen the Spirit in them,' and not he them ; how or by
what means, or by what principles in them it is, that so they
do, is not declared. Besides, what is here intended by the
Spirit is not manifested; if it be the holy and blessed Spirit
of God, he hath no need of our strengthening ; he is able of
himself, to 'make us meet for the inheritance of the saints in
light;' if it be the gracious principles that are bestowed upon
the saints, that are intended, the 'new creature,' the 'inward
man,' called the Spirit in the Scripture, in opposition to the
flesh, if our strengthening this Spirit, be any thing, but the
acting of the graces intended thereby in us, 1 know not what
you mean. Especially, in what is or consists their acting
EXPLAINED AND .CONFIRMED. 21
to make 'the Spirit willing proportionably to the means we
do receive,' am I to seek : to say, that we receive outward
means of God (for so they must be, being distinguished from
the Spirit), and thereupon of ourselves do make the Spirit
willing, and strengthen him to the performance of God,
surely holds out a very sufficient power in spiritual things,
inbred in us, and abiding with us, whereof there is not the
least line or appearance in the whole book of God, nor in
any author urged by Mr. Goodwin to give countenance to
his persuasion : neither,
2. Is the sura of all this answer any other but this : ' If we
are willing, and will prevent all miscarriages from the weak-
ness of the flesh, we may.' But how we become willing so to
do, and what assurance we have, that we shall be so willing,
seeing all in us by nature, as to any spiritual duty, is' flesh,
is not intimated in the least; this is strenuously supposed all
along, that to be willing unto spiritual good, in a spiritual
manner, is wholly in our own power, and an easy thing it is,
no doubt ; the plea in hand is, that such is the strength of
indwelling sin in the best of the saints, and so easily doth it
beset them, that if they have not some promise of God to as-
sure them, that they shall have constant supply of grace
from him, and by his power be preserved, it is impossible
but that they must be filled with perplexing fears, that they
shall not hold out in giving him willing obedience to the
end ; their will being in an especial manner entangled with
the power of sin. It is answered, ' If men be but willing, &,c.
they need not fear this, or any such issue ;' (i. e.) If they do
the thing which they fear, and have reasons invincible to
fear, that they shall not, they need not fear, but that they
shall do it; which is nothing but an absurd begging of the
thing in question. Neither is there any thing in the Scrip-
ture that will give a pass to this beggar, or shelter him from
due correction. The apostle indeed saith, that 'If we walk
in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.' And
good reason there is for it, for as he told us, these are con-
trary to one another, and opposite to one another, and bring
forth such divers and contrary fruits in them, in whom they
are, that if we walk in the one, we sholl not fulfil the lusts
of the other. But what assurance have we, that we shall
• John iii. 6,
22 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
walk in the Spirit, if it be not hence, that God hath pro-
mised ' that his Spirit shall never depart from us,' and if we
are led by the Spirit we are not under the law; which by
the way, letteth us see that the Spirit leadeth us, that is,
maketh us willing and strengtheneth us, not we him ; but on
what account, shall or dare any man promise to himself, that
the Spirit will continue so to do, if God hath not promised that
he shall so do ? or if his leading of us, be only on condition
that we be willing to be led, how shall we be in the least
ascertained (supposing us in any measure acquainted with
the power of indwelling sin), that we shall be alwayso willing:
let then this pass with what was said before, as nothing to the
thing in hand.
3. * It is answered then (thirdly and lastly), there is no
such aptness or proneness unto sin, sins I mean of a disin-
heriting import in saints, or true believers, as is pretended :
but on the contrary, a strong propension or inclination unto
righteousness reigneth in them; we heard formerly from the
apostle, 1 John iii. 9. 'That he that is born of God cannot
sin:' and also from 1 John v. 3. From these suppositions,
with many other of like import, it is evident that there
is a pregnant, strong, over-powering propension, in all true
believers to walk holily, and to live righteously, so that
to refrain sinning in the kind intended, is no such great
mastery, no such'matter of difficulty, unto such men ; and
that when they are overcome and fall into sin, it is through
amere voluntary neglect ; and thus we see all things impar-
tially weighed, and debated to and fro, that the doctrine
which supposeth a possibility of the saints' declining, is the
doctrine which is according to godliness, and the corrival of
it an enemy thereto.'
Ans. We have here an assertion, an inference, and a
conclusion ; the assertion is, that there is ' no such aptness
and proneness to sin in believers, as is intimated ;' and ' that
because there is such a strong propensity in them to right-
eousness,' which that they have is proved from sundry places
of Scripture ; that is, because the Spirit is in believers, the
flesh is not in them. Because they have a new man in them,
they have not an old ; because they have a principle of life,
they have not a body of death. That is, where the Spirit
lusteth against the flesh, the flesh lusteth not against the
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 23
Spirit. We thought the doctrine of Paul, Rom. vii. Gal. v.
and in innumerable other places, with the experience of all
the saints in the world had lain against this piece of sophis-
try. It is true, their propension unto righteousness reigneth
in them, but it is as true, their propension unto sin, rebelleth
in them. Though the land be conquered for Christ, yet the
Canaanites will dwell in it ; and if the saints leave off but
one day, the work of killing, crucifying, and mortifying,
they will quickly find an actual rebellion in them, not easy
to be suppressed : they have indeed a propension to holiness
ruling in them, but also a propension unto sin dwelling in
them, so that * when they would do good, evil is present with
them, and the good they would do, they cannot ;' but when
Mr. Goodwin can prove this consequence, that saints have
strong inclinations to righteousness, therefore they have not
so to sin, for my part I will forbear for ever disputing with
him ; if he can beat us, not only from Scripture, but all our
spiritual sense and experience, doubtless it is no purpose to
contend any longer with him. Hence then,
2. He inferreth, that to abstain from sinning, that is, sin-
ning customarily, and against conscience, so as to endanger
the loss of the favour of God, is no such great mastery, no
such matter of difficulty to such men. This abstaining from
such sins, on the one hand, is the whole course of our gos-
pel obedience, which it seemeth, however it be compared to
* running in a race,' ' striving for masteries,' called ' resisting
unto blood,' ' wrestling with principalities and powers,' re-
quiring for its carrying on the ' exceeding greatness of the
power of God,' with suitable * help in time of need from
Jesus Christ,' who is sensible of the weight of it, as no small
matter, knowing what it is to serve Giod in temptations, yet
is it indeed but a trifling thing, a matter of no great diffi-
culty or mastery : do men watch, pray, contend, fight, wres-
tle with God and Satan, doth the Lord put forth his power,
and the Lord Jesus Christ continually intercede for the pre-
servation of the saints, ' Ad quid perditio haec V to what end
is all this toil and labour, about a thing of little or no weight ?
' Egregiara vero laudera !' We know indeed, the yoke of
Christ is easy, and his * commandment not grievous ; that we
can do all things through him that enableth us,' but to make
gospel obedience, so slight a thing, that it is no great mas-
24 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE
tery, or matter of no great commendation, to hold out in it
to the end, this we were to learn till now, and are as yet
slow of heart to receive it.
The conclusion is, * lo, Psean, vicimus :' ' all things un-
partially weighed, the case is ours, and godliness exceed-
ingly promoted by the doctrine of the possibility of the
saints' defection ("OTrep e^u Sa^m), and thecorrival of it an
enemy to it :' to prove which not one word in the argument
hath been spoken, nor, to free the other from a charge of a
direct contrary importance, one word to the purpose ; and of
Mr. Goodwin's sixth argument for his doctrine of the apos-
tacy of saints, this is the end.
But this is not all he hath to say in this case in hand.
Indeed, the main design of his whole thirteenth chapter, con-
sisting of forty-one sections, and about so many pages in his
book, and containing all which in an argumentative way he
insisteth on in the case in hand, looketh this way; and there-
fore, having already plucked away one of the main props of
that discourse, I shall apply myself to take away those which
do remain, that the whole may justly fall to the ground;
and therefore shall as briefly as I can, consider the whole of
that discourse, containing nine arguments against the per-
severance of saints, for the possibilityof their total and final
defection.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 25
CHAP. XII.
3Ii\ G.'s entrance and preface to his arguments from the aposlacy of the
saints considered. The weakness of his first argument: the import of it.
Answer to that first argument. Doctrine may pretend to give God the
glory of being no accepter of persons, and yet he false: justification by
■works of that rank and order. Acceptation of persons what, and wherein
it consisteth. No place for it tvith God: contrary to distributive justice.
The doctrine of the saints' perseverance charged with rendering God an
accepter of persons, unjustly ; irhat it says looking this way. The sum
of the charge against it, considered and removed. Mr. G.'s second argu-
ment, and the weight by him hung thereon: the original of this argumeyit :
by whom somewhat insisted on. The argument itself in his tvords, pro-
posed: of the use and end of the ministry : whether iceakened by the doc-
trine of perseverance. Entrance into an answer to that argument. The
foundation laid of it false, and when: it falsely imposeth on the doctrine of
perseverance, sundry things by it disclaimed: the first considered. The
iniquity of those impositions farther discovered. The true state of the
difference as to this argimient, declared. The argument satisfied. The
reinforcement of the minor attempted, and considered. The jnanner of
God's operations with, and in, natural and voluntary agents, compared.
Efficacy of grace and liberty in man, consistent. An objection to himself
framed by Mr. G. ; that objection rectified. Perseverance, how absolutely
and simply necessary, how not. The removal of the pretended objection
farther insisted on by Mr. G. That discourse discussed, and manifested
to be weak and sophistical. The consistency of exhortations and promises
farther cleared. The manner of the operation of grace, in and upon the
wills of men, considered. The inconsistency of exhortations with the effi-
cacy of grace, disputed by Mr. G. That discourse removed, and the use
of exhortations farther cleared. Obedience to them twofold, habitual ac-
tual: of the physical operation of grace and means of the word: their com-
pliance and use. How the one and the other affect the will. Inclination
to persevere when ivrought in believers. Of the manner of God's opera-
tion on the wills of men : Mr. G.'s discourse and judgment, considered.
Effects follow as to their kind, their next causes. The same act of the will
physical and moral upon several accounts: those accounts considered. God
by the real efficacy of the Spirit, produceth in us acts of the will, morally
good: that confirmed from Scripture : conclusion froin thence. Of the
terms, physical, moral, and necessary, and their use in things of the na-
ture under consideration. Moral causes of physical effects. The con-
currence of physical and moral causes for producing the same effect: the
efficacy of grace and exhortations. Physical and necessary, how distin-
guished. Moral and not necessary. ConJ'uunded by Mr. G. Mr, G.'s
farther progress considered. What operation of God on the will of man
he allows. All physical operation by him excluded. Mr. G.'s sense of
the difference beliveen the working of God and a minister on the will: that
26 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
it is hut gradual: considered and removed. All working of God on the
will hy him confined to persuasion: persuasion f/ives no strength or ability
to the person persuaded. A II immediate acting of God to good in men, by
Mr. G. utterly excluded. Wherein God's persuading men doth consist,
according to Mr. G. 1 Cor. iii, i). considered. Of the concurrence of
diverse agents to the production of the same effect. The sum of the 1th
section of chap. 13. The will liow necessitated, how free. In what sense
Mr. G. allows God's persuasions to be irresistible. The dealings of God
and men ill-compared. Paul's exhortation to the use of means, where the
Old was certain, Acts xxiv. considered. God deals with men as men,
exhorting them, and as corrupted men, assistiny them. Of promises of
temporal things, whether all conditional. What condition in the promise
made to Paid ; Acts xxvii. Farther of that promise, its infallibility and
means of accomplishment. The same considerations farther prosecuted.
Of promises of perseverance, and what relations to perform in conjunction,
Mr. G.'s opposition hereunto. Promises and protestations in conjunction.
1 Cor. X, 12, 13. discussed. An absolute promise of perseverance therein
evinced. Phil. i. 12, 13. to the same purpose, considered. Mr. G.'sinter-
pretation of that place proposed, removed. Heb. vi. 4, 5. 9. to the same
purpose, insisted on. Of the consistency of threatenings with the protnises
of perseverance. 3Ir.G.'s opposition hereunto, considered and removed.
What promises of perseverance are asserted, how absolute and iufruslrahle.
Fear of lieli and punishinent twofold. The fear intended to be ingene-
rated by threatenings, not inconsistent with the assurance given by pro-
wises. Five considerations about the use of threatenings: the first, ^-c.
Hypocrites how threatened for apostacy: of the end and aim of God in
threatenings. Of the proper end and efficacy of threateninys, with refer-
ence unto true lelievers. Fear of hell and punishment, how far a principle
of obedience in the saints. Of Noah's fear ; Heb. xi. 7. 3Ir. G.'s far-
ther arguings for the efficacy of the fear of hell, unto obedience in the
saints; proposed, considered, removed. 1 Joliii iv. 18. considered. Of
the obedience of saints to their heavenly Father, compared to the obedience
of children to their natural parents: Mr. G.'s monstrous conception about
this thing. How fear or love, and in what sense, are principles of obedi-
ence. That which is done from fear, not done willinyly, nor cheerfully.
Hoiv fear, and what fear, hath torment. Of the nature and use of pro-
mises. Close of the answer to this argument.
It will he needless to use many words unto the discourse of
the first section; seeing it will not in the least prejudice our
cause in hand, to leave Mr. Goodwin in full possession of
all the glory of the rhetoric thereof. For although I cannot
close with him in the exposition given of that expression,
1 Tira.vi. 16. 'God inhabiteth light inaccessible,' something,
in my weak apprehension, much more glorious and divine
being comprised therein, than what it is here turned aside
unto ; neither am 1 in the least convinced of the truth T^g
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 27
airoS6(T£wg of the former discourse, in the close of the whole,
asserting a deliverance to be obtained from our thoughts of
the doctrine of the defection of the saints, which he inti-
mateth to be, that it is anti-evangelical, tormenting, and
bringing souls under bondage, by a narrow and unprejudi-
cate search into it, finding myself every day more and more
confirmed in thoughts of that kind concerning it, by my en-
gagement into such an inquiry, which hath been observed
in this present discourse, as far as my weakness will permit ;
yet it being not in the least argumentative, but for the whole
frame and intendment of it commune exordium, and that which
any man of any opinion in the world might make use of, I
shall not insist upon it.
His second section containeth his first argument, drawn
forth in the defence of his doctrine of the possibility (as he
calleth it, but indeed what it is, we have heard) of the de-
fection of believers ; of this, I presume he intended no more
use but (as a forlorn) to begin a light skirmish with his ad-
versaries, ordering it to retreat to his main body advancing
after, or desperately casting it away, to abate the edge of his
combatant's weapons, it is so weak and feeble ; and, there-
fore, I shall be very brief in the consideration of it ; thus
then he proposeth it.
' That doctrine which rendereth God free from the un-
righteousness which the Scripture calleth the respecting of
persons of men, is a doctrine of perfect consistence with the
Scripture, and the truth ; the doctrine which teacheth the
possibility of the saints' declining, and this unto death, is a
doctrine of this import: ergo.'
Arts. 1. The first proposition must be supposed universal,
or else the whole will quickly be manifested to be uncon-
clusive. If it be only indefinite, and so equivalent (as it
lieth) to a particular, the conclusion is from all particulars,
and of no force, as Mr. Goodwin well knoweth. Take it
universally, and I say it is evidently false, and might easily
be disproved by innumerable instances. Not that any error
or falsehood, can indeed give God the glory of any one of his
attributes ; but that they may be fitted and suited for such a
service, were not their throats cut, and their mouths stopped,
by the lies that are in them, which Mr. Goodwin's doctrine
is no less liable to than any other, and not at all exempted
28 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE
from that condition, by its seeming subserviency unto God's
ap7-osopolepsia. Doth not the doctrine of justification by
works, even in the most rigid sense of it, according to the
tenor of the old covenant, absolutely render God free from
the unrighteousness of accepting of persons ? and yet for all
that, it hath not one jot the more of truth in it, nor is it the
less anti-evangelical. This foundation then being removed,
whatever is built upon it mole ruit sua. Neither is it in any
measure restored, or laid anew, by the reason of it given by
Mr. G. viz. 'That the Scripture affirmeth in sundry places
that God is no accepter of persons :' for he that shall hence
conclude, that whatever doctrine affirmeth, directly, or by
consequence, that God is no accepter of persons, whatever
other abomination it is evidently teeming withal, is yet
true, and according to the mind of God, shall have leave,
notwithstanding the antiquated statute of our university
against it, to go and read logic at Stamford. On this ac-
count, do but provide that a doctrine be not guilty of any
one crime, and you may conclude that it is guilty of none.
For instance, that doctrine which impeacheth not the omni-
presence of the Deity, is true and according to the Scripture,
for the Scripture aboundeth with clear testimonies of the
presence of God in all places. Now the doctrine of the ubi-
quity of the human nature of Christ, doth no way impeach
the omnipresence of the Deity ; therefore it is true and ac-
cording to Scripture.
I might supersede all farther considerations of this argu-
ment, having rendered it altogether useless, and unservice-
able in this warfare, by breaking its right leg, or rather
crutch, whereon it leaned : but something also may be added
to the minor, because of its reflection in the close of its
proof upon the doctrine we maintain, intimating an incon-
sistency of it, with that excellency of God spoken of; namely,
that he is no accepter of persons.
' P rosopolepsia , or accepting of persons, is an evil in
judgment, when he who is to determine in causes of righte-
ousness, hath respect to personal things, that concern not
the merit of the cause in hand, and judgeth accordingly.'
This properly can have no place in God, us to any bestowing
of free grace, mercy, or pardon ; there is room made for it,
only when the things that are bestowed, or wrought, by it.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 29
«
are such, as in justice are due; it being an iniquity solely
and directly opposed to distributive justice/ that rendereth
to every one according to what is righteous and due. That
with God there be no accepting of persons there is no more
required, but this, that he appoint and determine equal
punishments to equal faults, and give equal rewards to
equal deservings. If he will dispose of his pardoning mercy,
and free grace to some in Christ not to others, who shall
say unto him what dost thou? May he not do what he will
with his own ? So he giveth a penny to him that laboureth
all day, he may give a penny also to him that worketh but
one hour. Now suppose that Mr. G.'s doctrine render God
free from this (or rather chargeth him not with it), yet if
withal it calleth his truth, righteousness, faithfulness, oath,
and immutability into question, shall it pass for a truth, or
be embraced ever the sooner ?
But the sting of this argument lieth in the tail, or close
of it, in the reflection insisted on, upon the common doctrine
of perseverance as it is called : viz. that it teacheth God to
be an accepter of persons: this is Mr. Goodwin's way of
arguing all along; when at any time he -hath proposed a
proof of the doctrine he goeth about to establish, finding
that as something heavy work to lie upon his hand, and not
much to be said in the case, he instantly turneth about and
falleth upon his adversaries, in declaiming against whom,
he hath a rich and overflowing vein. There is scarce any
one of his arguments, in the pursuit and improvement whereof,
one fourth part of it is spoken to that head, wherein he is
engaged.
But wherein is the common doctrine of perseverance
guilty of this great crime? It teacheth, that he that be-
lieveth shall be saved, and he that believeth not, shall be
damned. It teacheth, that God hath allotted equal punish-
ments to equal transgressions, and appointed equal re-
wards to equal ways of obedience. That the wages of every
sin is death, and that every sinner must die, unless it be
those, concerning whom God himself saith,!^ ' Deliver them,
I have found a ransom :' that he is alike displeased with
sin in whomsoever it is, and that in a peculiar and eminent
manner when it is found in his own. Indeed, if this be to
» Exod. xxiii. 2, 3. 6—9. Job. xxxi. 34. b Job. xxxiii. 24.
30 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
impute acceptation of persons to God, to say, * that he hath
mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he
hardeneth ;' that is, tender to his own, as a Father to his only
child that serveth him, and will recover them (being faithful
in his promises) from their sins, and heal their backslidings,
though he suffer others to lie wallowing in their rebellions,
and pollutions all their days ; that he will not give pardon
to any sinner, but upon faith and repentance, but will give
faith and repentance to those whom he hath chosen, and
given unto Jesus Christ, to be saved : if this, I say, be ac-
ceptance of persons, our doctrine owneth the imputation of
ascribing it to God, and glorieth in it : we being ascertained
that God taketh all this to himself, clearly, and plentifully
in the word of truth.
The sum of what our author gives in, to make good his
charge upon the common doctrine of perseverance is. That
it affirmeth, ' that thoug-h saints and believers fall into the
same sins of adultery and idolatry, and the like, with other
men, yet they are not dealt withal as other men, but con-
tinued in love and favour of God.' To wave the considera-
tion of the false impositions (by the way) on the doctrine
opposed (as that is that it teacheth the saints to fall into,
and to continue in them to the significancy of that expres-
sion, 'never so long' under abominations), and to join issue
upon the whole of the matter, I say,
1. That in and with this doctrine, and in perfect har-
mony and consistency therewith, we maintain, thaf^ the
judgment of God is the same in respect of every sin in
whomsoever it is, and that he that doth it on that account,
is worthy of death ; and,
2. That the sentence of the law, is the same towards all,
cursing*^ every one that continueth not in all things written
in the book thereof, to do them.
3. That in and under the gospel, wherein a remedy is
provided in reference to the rigour and severity of both the
former apprehensions, yet the judge of all, dealeth with all
men equally, accoording to the tenor of it, * He that be-
lieveth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be
damned ;' men in the same condition, shall have the same
recompense of reward ; but you will sav, do not the same
« Rom. i. 32. ^ Deut. xxvii. 26.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 31
sins, put men into the same condition, and deserve the same
punishment in one as in another?
Ans, 1. They do deserve the same punishment: God is
equally provoked, and had not Christ answered for the sins
of believers, they could not, they should not, have escaped
the wrath due to them. 2. That the same sins do not argue
men always under the gospel, to be in the same condition,
as shall be afterward fully manifested : for, (1 .) They do not
find them in the same state : some are in a state of death
and sin, others of life and grace, being translated from the
one to the other, having a title to the promise of mercy in
Christ. (2.) And chiefly, as there is a twofold justification
of the person and of the fact, and the one may be without
the other, so there is a twofold condemnation of disappro-
bation of the fact, and of the person ; as to the particular
disapprobation of God in respect of any sinful act, it is the
same in reference unto all persons, believers and unbelievers :
as to their persons, there are in the gospel other ingredients
to the judgment of them, beside particular facts, or acts, in
answer to the law or the rule of righteousness, viz. faith
and repentance, which alter the case of the person, even
before the judgment-seat of God : to suppose the saints to
fall into the same sins with other men, in the same manner,
and to continue in them, without faith and repentance, is to
beg the thing in question. Suppose them to have (what we
afErm God hath promised) those conditions of evangelical
mercy, and Mr. Goodwin himself, will grant it no acceptance
of persons, to deal otherwise with them, than with others
who have committed like sins with them, in whom those
conditions are not wrought or found ; that is, ' he that be-
lieveth shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned.'
This is all we say in this thing : but of the difference between
believers and imbelievers in their sinning, we shall speak
afterward at large, to the full removal of this and another
objection. For the present this shall suffice, though be-
lievers fall, or may fall into the same sins with other men,
yet they fall not into them in the same manner with them,
and they have a relief provided, to prevent the deadly ma-
lignity of sin, which those who believe not, have no interest
in, nor right unto.
Mr. Goodwin's second argument, is that which of all
32 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
others in this case, he seemeth to lay most weight upon,
and which he pursueth at large in seventeen pages, and as
many sections, treating in it concerning the ministry of the
gospel, and the usefulness of the exhortations, threatenings,
and promises thereof. For an entrance into the considera-
tion of it, J must needs say, 'Non venitex pharetris ista sa-
gitta tuis.' For besides, that Mr. Goodwin hath taken very
little pains in the improvement of it (considering how it was
provided to his hand by the remonstrants at the synod of
Dort, and that which he hath done farther, consisting in a
mere useless and needless stuffing of it, with sundry notions
taken out of their first argument and fifth *De modo conver-
sionis' of the manner of the Spirit's operation in and upon
the soul, in its first conversion to God), it was the old song
of the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians, in their dealing with
Austin, Fulgentius, Hilarius, Prosper, by them at large
confuted, renewed by Castalio and Erasmus against Luther,
after it had been sifted and rejected by the more learned
schoolmen in former ao;es. Whatever it be, and however it
is now come to hand, being taught to speak our language,
and that in the best fashion, the consideration of it must
not be declined. And thus it is proposed :
' If the common doctrine of perseverance, rendereth the
ministry of the gospel, so far as it concerneth the perse-
verance of the saints, vain, impertinent, and void, then is it
not a doctrine of God, but of men, and consequently that
which opposeth it is the truth : but certain it is, that the
said doctrine, is of this unchristian tendency and import ;
ergo.' The first part of the consequent of the major is grant-
ed. The work of the ministry, being for the edification of
the body of Christ, and the perfecting of the saints, (Eph. iv.
12, 13.) that which frustrateth the end whereunto of Christ
himself it is desio-ned, can be no truth of his. Of the farther
inference, that the doctrine which opposeth it, or is set up
in opposition to it, is the truth, more will be spoken after-
ward. For the present I cannot but insist upon the former
observation. That notwithstanding, Mr. Goodwin's pre-
tence of proving and arguing for the doctrine he maintains,
yet upon the matter, he hath not any thing to say, in the
carrying on of that design, but instantly falls to his old work
of raising objections, in their very setting up prepared to be
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 33
cast down (for the most part), which with all his might he
laboured to remove.
The stress of the whole (as far as we are concerned in it)
lieth on the minor, which is tluis farther attempted to be
made good : the minor proposition is demonstrated thus :
'The doctrine which rendereth the labour and faithfulness of
a minister in pressing such exhortations, threatenings, and
promises, which tend to the preservation of the saints, in
faith and holiness to the end, useless, rendereth the minis-
try of the gospel, as far as it concerneth the encouragement
or enabling of the saints to persevere, needless and vain :
but guilty of such a tendency as this, is the commonly re-
ceived doctrine of perseverance : ergo.'
Ans. This labour might have been saved, and both these
syllogisms very easily reduced to one : but then another
seeming argument (as we shall find afterward) insisted on,
would have been prevented. Our trade in such cases as this
is by weight, and not by number : the minor then, is still to
be confirmed ; which he laboureth thus to do :
' The common doctrine of perseverance, requireth and
commandeth all saints or believers to be fully persuaded,
and this with the greatest and most indubitable certainty of
faith, that there is an absolute and utter impossibility, either
of a total, or a final, defection of their faith : that thouo-h
tliey should fall into ten thousand enormous and most
abominable sins, and lie wallowing in them, like a swine in
the mire, yet they should remain all the while in an estate
of grace, and that God will, by a strong hand of irresistible
grace, bring them off from their sins by repentance, before
they die : but the doctrine which requireth and commandeth
all this, and much more of like import, to be confidently be-
lieved by true believers, rendereth the pressing of all ex-
hortations, threatenings, promises upon them in order to
prevail with them, or to make them carefully to persevere,
bootless and unnecessary : ergo.'
Alls. 1. What weight Mr. Goodwin (with all those with
whom as to his undertaking under consideration he is in fel-
lowship) doth lay upon this argument, is known to all. The
whole foundation of what is afterward at large insisted on,
for the establishment of it, being laid upon the proof of the
minor proposition formerly denied, here laid down. It will
VOL. VII. D
34 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVEUAXCE
easily be granted, that it was incumbent on him to make
sure work here, and not to leave any thing liable to any just
exception. An error or a mistake in the foundation, is not
easily recoverable ; all that is afterward heaped up, beareth
itself on a supposition of the truth of what is here delivered.
If this fail in the least, we may spare our labour, as to any
farther consideration of what followeth. Now the main of
the proof here in!?isted on, lieth, in the declaration of that
which he calleth, the common doctrine of perseverance, and
concerning this, he informeth his reader :
1. ' That it commandeth all saints to be fully persuaded,
and that with the greatest and most indubitable certainty of
faith, that there is an absolute and utter impossibility either
of a total, or final defection of their faith.'
Ans. 1. What is the intendment of these aggravating ex-
pressions of ' fully persuaded, greatest and most indubitable
certainty of faith,' I know not. Will it please you, if it
should require them to be persuaded, but not fully per-
suaded, believe it, but with little and dubitable certainty of
faith, or uncertainty rather? Full persuasion, greatest certain-
ty, without doubting or staggering, are all of their perfections
of faith, and of the saints in believing: which without doubt
they are, in all that they are to believe, to press after: so
that all this is no more, but that this doctrine requireth men
to believe what it affirraeth God to have promised. It re-
quireth men to mix the promises of God with faith, crimen
in anditurn. But though the manner of believing which it
requireth, be not blamabie, yet the thing which it pro-
poseth to be believed is false. What is that? That there is
an absolute or utter impossibility either of a total or final
defection of the faith of true believers. Its requiring this to
be believed is the bottom, and also corner-stone, of Mr.
Goodwin's ensuing argument : if it doth not do this, he hath
nothing in this place to say to it. Let him then produce any
one that ever wrote in the defence of it, that liath in terms,
or by just consequence, delivered any such thing, and on
herbam; there shall be an end of this dispute. I presume
Mr. Goodwin knoweth what is meant by an absolute and
utter impossibility. An absolute repugnancy unto being,
in the nature of the things themselves concerning whicii
any allirmation is, and not any external or foreign considera-
EXPLAIIVED AND CONFIRMED. 35
tion doth entitle any thing to an absolute and utter impossi-
bility ; did ever any one affirm, that in the nature of the
"thing itself, the defection of the saints is absolutely impos-
sible ? Is it not by them that believe the perseverance of the
saints constantly affirmed that in themselves they are apt,
yea, prone to fall away, and their faith to decay and die,
which in itself possibly may be done, though Mr. Goodwin
cannot tolerably shew how. The whole certainty of their
continuance in, and of the preservation of, their faith, de-
pends merely on supposition of something that is extrinsical
in respect of them and of their state, which as to their condi-
tion might or might not be. Farther, the perseverance of
the saints, is by the same persons constantly affirmed to
be carried on, and to be perfected in and by the use of
means. It is their keeping by the power of God through
faith unto salvation ; and can then an absolute impossibility
of their defection be asserted, or only that which is so upon
supposition, viz. of the purpose of God, &c. There was no
absolute impossibility that the bones of Christ should not
be broken, they being in themselves as liable to be broken
as his flesh to be pierced ; yet in respect of the event, it was
impossible they should be so. I cannot well imagine that
Mr. Goodwin is not fully persuaded with the greatest and
most indubitable certainty that a persuasion in things of
this kind will admit, that the common doctrine of perseve-
rance, doth not require saints to believe, that there is an ab-
solute impossibility of their defection,but only that God hath
promised to preserve them from that which in themselves,
and in respect of any thing in them, they are obnoxious unto,
in and by the use of the means, suited and appointed by
him to the carrying on of that work and compassing of the
end proposed. But yet it pleaseth him here to make show
of a contrary apprehension, and to shew his confidence
therein, he aggravates it, with this annexed supposition and
case : ' It doth so,' saith he, ' though they should fall into
ten thousand enormous and most abominable sins, and lie
wallowing in them like swine in the mire, yet that they shall
remain all the while in an estate of grace.'
Am. Truly this is such an enormous and an abominable
calumny, that I cannot but admire how any sober and ra-
tional man, durst venture upon the owning of it; the ques-
D 2
36 DOCTRINE OV THE SAINTS' PEUSEVERAXCE
tion now is, what faith the doctrine insisted on ingenerates in
particular persons, that should enervate and make void the
exhortations, &,c. of the ministry ? Now though tlie doctrine
should teach this indefinitely, that though men did sin so
and so, as is here expressed, yet they should be kept in a
state of grace as is mentioned (which yet is loudly and
palpably false, as hath been declared), yet that it doth require
particular men to believe for themselves, and in reference to
the guidance of their own ways, that they may 'lie and wal-
low in their sin like swine in the mire, and yet continue
in a state of grace and acceptation with God,' is so notori-
ously contrary to the whole tenor of the doctrine, the genius
and nature of it, with all the arguments whereby it is asserted
and maintained, that if conscience had but in the least been
advised withal in this contest, this charge had been with-
out doubt omitted : all that is produced for the confirmation
of this strange imposition on the persuasion under consider-
ation, is his own testimony that makes the charge, 'that it is
the known voice of the common doctrine of perseverance,'
and that being said is laid as a foundation of all that follows.
The whole discourse still relating to a supposition that this
is the doctrine which it opposeth, from the very next words
to the end. Nor is there the least farther attempt for the
confirmation of this grand assertion; but is this the known
voice of our doctrine of perseverance? Whoever heard
it but Mr. G. and men of the like projudicate spirits against
the truth? The worst that can be charged with looking this
way, is its asserting the promised efficacy of the grace of
God, for the preserving of believers by the use of means,
from such wallowing in abominable sins, as is supposed
that it affirms they may be exposed unto. In brief, it
says not,
First, That all believers are certain of their perseve-
rance ; nor,
Secondly, That any one can be certain of it upon such
supposals as are here mentioned: such a persuasion would
not be from him that calls them ; nor,
Thirdly, That the end can be- obtained without the use
of means, though by them it shall certainly be so; but.
Fourthly, That all the hope of their perseverance, is built
on the promises of God, to preserve them by and in the use
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED.
37
of means : so that in truth there is no need of any farther
process for the removiug of the argument insisted on, but
only a disclaimer of the doctrine by it opposed, if it be that
which is here expressed.
That indeed which Mr. Goodwin hath to dispute against,
if he will deal fairly and candidly in the carrying on of his
design, is this : 'That the certainty of an end to be obtained
by means suited thereunto, doth not enervate nor render
vain the use of those means, appointed for the accomplish-
ment of that end.' The perseverance of the saints is the
thing here proposed to be accomplished : that this shall be
certainly affected and brought about, according to the pro-
mises of God for the affecting of it, God hath appointed the
means under debate, to be managed by the ministry of the
gospel : that the promise of God concerning the saints, per-
severance to be wrought and effected, as by others so by
these means in their kind, doth not invalidate or render use-
less and vain the use of those means, but indeed establishes
them, and ascribes to them their proper efficacy, is that which
in this doctrine is asserted, and which Mr. Goodwin ought
to have disproved, if he would have acquitted himself as a
fair antagonist in this cause ; the promise, we say, that He-
zekiah*" had of the continuance of his life, did not make use-
less, but called for, the ' plaister of figs' that was appointed
for the healing of his sore.
I might then, as I said, save myself the labour of farther
engaging, for the casting down of this fabric, built on the
sandy foundations of falsehood and mistake. But because
something may fall in of that which follovveth, more indeed
to the purpose than an orderly pursuit of these assertions
laid down in the entrance would require, that may more di-
rectly rise up against the cause in whose defence I am en-
gaged, I shall consider the whole ensuing discourse, which
without doubt will administer farther occasion for the illus-
tration or confirmation of the truth in hand. He proceeds
then :
' The reason of the minor is, because a certain knowledge
and persuasion, that God will by an irresistible hand of
power, preserve a man, in the state of grace, how desperately
'' ba. xxwiii. 5. 21.
38 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
careless, negligent, or wicked, soever he shall be, clearly
dissolves the usefulness and necessity of all other means
whatsoever, in reference to this end. If I know certainly
that the corn which I have sown in my field will, whether I
wake or sleep, grow and prosper, would it not be a very im-
pertinent address, for any man to come to me, and admo-
nish me in a serious and grave manner, to take heed I sleep
not, but keep myself waking lest my corn should not grow
or prosper, or that it may grow and prosper; if my corn
grows, thrives, and prospers, by the irresistible hand of God,
by the course of a natural and standing providence, my
watchfulness, in order to a procurement of these things, is
absolutely vain,' &.c.
Ans. That this is not the doctrine which Mr. Goodwin
hath undertaken to oppose, hath been more than once alrea-
dy declared; that he is not able with any colour of rea-
son to oppose it, unless he first impose his own false and
vain inferences upon it, and them upon his reader, for the
doctrine itself from his constant course of proceeding
against it, is also evident; what advantage this is like in
the close, to prove to his cause in the judgment of conside-
rate men, the event will discover: the assertion of the sta-
bility of the promises of God in Jesus Christ given to be-
lievers, concerning his effectual preserving them to the end,
from such sins as are absolutely inconsistent with his grace
and favour according to the tenor of the new covenant, or
such continuance in any sin as is of the same importance,
by his Spirit and grace, in the use of means, doth no way
tend to the begetting in any a certain knowledge, assur-
ance, and persuasion, that God will continue them in a state
of grace, how ' desperately careless or wicked soever they
shall be.'
What is intended by the frequent repetition of this gross
sophistry, or what success with the intelligent Christian
ponderers of things he can hope for thereby, I am not nble
to guess; neither is any improvement in the least given to
what the intendment of this argument is, so far as the com-
mon doctrine of perseverance is concerned therein, from the
comparison ensuing instituted between the growth of corn,
and the walking of believers in obedience before God ; fin-
notwithstanding the identity in respect of the comparison
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 39
of that expression ' irresistible/ which indeed is proper to
neither, there is a wide difference between the growing of
corn in a mere natural way, and the moral actings of an in-
telligent rational creature ; whatever operations of God are
about and in the one or the other, yet they are suited to their
subjects about which they are ; God carries on the growth
of corn by a way of natural and necessary causes, but his
acting of rational agents is by such ways and means, as
may entirely preserve their liberty ; that is, preserving them
in their being, and leaving them to be such agents. As then
God causeth the corn to grow by the shining of his sun,
and the falling of his rain, so he causeth believers to per-
se\^€i'e in obedience, by exhortations, promises, and threat-
enings, and such ways and means, as are suited to such
agents as they are. The fallacy of this discourse, lies in an
insinuation that God by his effectual (or as they are called
irresistible) operations for the preservation of believers in
gospel obedience (a thing he hath undertaken over and
over, to perform), doth change their nature, and render thera
not free and intelligent agents, fit to be wrought upon by
the proposal of suitable and desirable objects to their un-
derstandings, but mere brute and natural principles of all
operations flowing from them ; a conceit as gross and ridi-
culous, as certainly destructive to all the efficacy of the
grace of God. All the rest of this section as far as it con-
cerns us is only an affirming this way and that, that an as-
surance of the end to be obtained by the use of means, ren-
ders those means altogether useless; which when he proves,
the controversy may be nearer to an issue, than otherwise
he hath any reason to hope that it is or will be, to his ad-
vantage.
Sect. 4. Leaving the farther confirmation of his argu-
ment, he enters upon the removal of a plea insisted on, to
the justification of the doctrine opposed, and vindication of
it from the crime wherewith here by him it is charged; this
he tells you is, that the exhortations, comminations, and
promises, spoken of, are means appointed of God for the
accomplishing and effecting of the perseverance of the
saints, which he hath made simply and absolutely necessary
by his decree. * This,' he saith, * hath neither any logical
nor theological virtue in it, for the purpose for which it is
40 DOCTRIXE OF THE SATXTS' PERSEVER AX^CE
produced ; but is a notion irrelative to the business, the ac-
commodation whereof it pretends.'
Alls. It may be so; suffer you to frame the objection,
and who will doubt of your abilities of giving an answer;
but who, I pray, says that God by his decree, hath made the
perseverance of the saints simply and absolutely necessary;
that it is certain in respect of the event, from the decree of
God, we grant; and do we thereby overthrow the means
whereby it is to be accomplished ? Yea, we establish them;
we are of the mind that God hath purposed, and thereupon
promised, the accomplishment of many things (as the sell-
ing of Joseph into Egypt, the bringing of the children of
Israel from thence, and the like), which yet were to be car-
ried on to their accomplishment, and brought about through
innumerable contingencies, by the free, rational, delibera-
tive actings of men ; if by ' simply and absolutely necessary,'
you intend that the thing decreed is to be wrought of men,
simply and absolutely, necessarily by their operations, as
to the manner of them, we simply and absolutely deny any
such decree ; if by those expressions you improperly intend
only the certainty of the event, or accomplishment of the
thing decreed with respect to the m'eans appointed and fitted
thereunto, we say this establisheth those means, neither
have they the nature of means to an end from any reason
whatever, but as so appointed of God thereunto. But he
jiroceeds in the proof of his former assertion, and says,
* First, That the exhortations whereby the saints are ex-
horted to perseverance, are no means by which the promises
of perseverance made, as our adversaries suppose, to them
are accomplished or effected, is thus clearly evinced: what-
soever is a means for the bringing of any thing to pass,
ought not to contain any thing in it, repugnant or contrary
unto that which is intended to be brought to pass by it, for
means ought to be subordinate to their ends, not repugnant;
but the Scripture exhortations unto perseverance, contain
that which is repugnant to the promises of perseverance, if
supposed such as our adversaries suppose them to be, there-
fore they can by no means effect those promises ; the minor
is evident by the light of this consideration ; such exhorta-
tions as these to the saints : Take heed lest at any time there
be an evil heart of unbelief in you ; lest you be hardened
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 41
through the deceitfulness of sin ; lest you fall from grace,
least you receive the grace of God in vain ; lest you fall
from your own steadfastness; — in their native and proper
tendency import a danger, and serve to raise a fear in men,
lest the danger imported, should come upon them ; where-
as such promises as these made unto the same persons, and
that not conditionally as is supposed, that there shall never
be a heart of unbelief in you; that they shall never be hard-
ened through the deceitfulness of sin ; that they shall never
fall away from the grace of God; exclude all danger or pos-
sibility of falling away, and tend directly to prevent or ex-
tinguish all fear in men of any such danger ; therefore, such
exhortations are in their nature and genuine import, con-
trary to such promises in theirs, and consequently can be
no means of bringing them to pass.'
Alls. 1. Exhortations are not so properly the means
whereby the promises are accomplished, as the means where-
by the things mentioned in the promises are wrought; God,
by and through them, stirring up those graces, whicli he
promises to work, continue, and to increase in his saints.
2. ' Exhortations divine,' must be so apprehended as to
be subservient to an end, in rei-pect of God foreknown and
determined ; it is true, we exhort men (or may) to those things
of whose event we are wholly uncertain; but to God this
cannot be ascribed : he doth foreknow, and hath fore-de-
termined the end and issue that every one of his exhorta-
tions shall have; and therefore such a nature and no other
is to be ascribed to them, as is consistent with, and subser-
vient to, a determined end.
3. To the confirmation of his minor proposition, the an-
swer is easy from the consideration; first, of the end of the
exhortations insisted on unto perseverance ; and then of the
promises of perseverance themselves, which are no way in-
consistent therewith. For the first, I say, those exhorta-
tions, 'take heed lest there be in you an evil heart of unbe-
lief/ and the like, are not given to ingenerate a fear of fallin^y
away (which is a thing in itself evil and opposite unto that
steadfastness of faith, and full assurance, which we should
press unto, so far is it from any act of faitliful obedience,
that God should aim to work in the hearts of his, and a|)ply
means thereunto), but only to beget a holy cure and dili-
42 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVERANCE
gence in them to whom they are made or given for the using
of the means appointed of God, for the avoiding of the evil
threatened to follow upon a neglect of them ; which directly
falls in and sweetly conspires with the end and use of the
promises of perseverance by ns urged and insisted upon.
Nothing is imported by tliem, but only the connexion that
is between the things mentioned in tliem ; as unbelief, and
rejection from God. This God aims at in those exhorta-
tions, in their particular respect unto believers, that by them
they may be stirred up to the use of those means, which he
hath appointed for them, to be by them preserved in the
grace and mercy, which he hath infallibly promised to con-
tinue to them.
And, 4. The end of the promises of perseverance on wliich
we have insisted, being their mixing with faith to establish
the souls of the saints, in believing the kindness and faith-
fulness of God in his covenant in Jesus Christ, they do not
take away nor prevent all danger of perishing, and so con-
seqiiently not that fear in any measure which stirs them up
so to the use of means that they may not perish, but only
are elTectual for their deliverance out of those dangers, which
are apt and able of themselves to destroy them : as our Sa-
viour himself prays for them, John xvii. 15. 'I pray not that
thou shouldcst take them out of the world' (where, whilst
they are, they will be sure to meet with dangers and per-
plexities enough), 'but that thou shouldest keep them from
the evil,' wherewith they must reckon to be exercised. There
is not then the least contrariety or diverse aspect, between
the assurance of faith about the end, which the promises
tend unto, and the care and godly fear about the means in-
stituted and appointed with respect to the end, which ex-
hortations do beget, and will notwithstanding those pro-
mises.
5. The greatest inconsistency that can be imagined, be-
tween exhortations and promises, as by us explained, is no
more than this, that in one place God promiseth that unto
us, as his grace, which in another he requires of us as our
duty, between which two, whoever feigns an opposition, he
doth his endeavour to set the covenant of grace, as to us
proposed and declared, at variance with itself.
The whole ensuing discourse unto sect 12. drawing deep
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 43
upon another controversy (viz. 'the manner of the operation
of grace'), and being for the most part borrowed from what
is delivered on that head in the^ Arminian writino^s, mioht
be passed over, as not of any necessary consideration in this
place. What we assign to the exhortations of the word, and
their consistency with whatever else we teach of the saints'
perseverance, being already heard, this argument is at its
proper issue. But the task midertaken is not to be waved
or avoided, I shall therefore proceed to the discussion of it.
Thus then he goes on :
' If,' saith he, ' such exhortations as we speak of, be a means
to effect the perseverance, which our adversaries suppose
to be promised in the saints, then must the act of perseve-
rance in the saints, necessarily depend upon them; so as that
it cannot nor will not be effected without them, i. e. without
the saints submitting themselves to them. But persevering
upon these terms clearly supposeth a possibility of non-per-
severing, for whatsoever dependeth upon a mutable condi-
tion, and which possibly may not be performed, may be also
possible never to come to pass.'
Ans. 1. Exhortations are improperly said to be a means
to 'effect perseverance :' we say only that they are means to
stir up, quicken, and increase those graces in the exercise
whereof the saints, according to the purpose and promise of
God, do persevere.
2. The perseverance of the saints doth consist in the
abiding and continuance of those graces in them, which
those exhortations do so stir up, and farther or increase.
And in that regard there is a connexion between the per-
severance of the saints, and the exhortations mentioned :
yea, a dependance of the one on the other. But this depend-
ance ariseth not from the nature of the things themselves,
whence such a certainty as is asserted would not arise, but
from the purpose and appointment of God that they should
be effectual to that end : and therefore,
3. A perseverance on these terms supposeth a possibility
of non-persevering,if you regard only the nature of the things
themselves, and set aside all consideration of the purpose
and promises of God concerning the end, which is to beg
the thing in hand ; yea, the promise of God extends itself
^Acta Synodal.
44 DOCTIIIXE OF THE SAlXTs' PERSEVERAXCE
to the certain accomplishment of'tlie saints' submission to
those exhortations ; so that the end aimed at doth not de-
pend on a mutable condition (if 1 understand any thing of
that expression, so unsuited to the business in hand), the
performance of the condition (or the. yielding of such obedi-
ence as is required to the essence of the "saints' perseverance)
being certain also from the promises of God.
liis fifth section is as follovvelh, ' If it be said, thatthe said
exhortations are means of the saints' persevering in this re-
spect, because God by his Spirit irresistibly and infrustra-
bly draws and persuades the saints to obey these exhorta-
tions, as nieans of their persevering : I answer. It cannot be
proved that God doth draw or persuade his saints upon any
such terms to obey these exhortations, nay, frequent expe-
lience sheweth, and our adversaries' doctrine frequently men-
tioned, expressly granteth that the saints many times are so
far from obeying these exhortations, that they walk for a
long time in full opposition to tliem, as in security, loose-
ness, vile practices : nor have they yet proved, nor (I believe)
ever will prove bat that they may walk, yea and that many
have thus walked, I mean in full opposition to the said ex-
hortations to their dying day. Secondly, If God by his
Spirit irresistibly dravvs his saints to obey the exhortations
we speak of, he thus draweth them either by such a force or
power ima:iediately acted upon their wills by which they are
made willing to obey them ; or else he maketh use of the
said exhortations so to work or affect their wills, that they
become willing accordingly : if the former be asserted ;
Then first, the said exhortations are no means wliereby the
perseverance of the saints is effected, but God irresistibly
by his S[)irit; for if the will be thus immediately affected
by God after such a manner, and wrought to such a bent
and inclination, as that it cannot but obey the said exhorta-
tions, or do the things which the said exhortations require,
then would it have done the same things whether there had
been any such exhortations in being or no, and consequently
these exhortations could have no manner of efficiency about
their perseverance ; for the will, according to the common
saying, is of itself a blind faculty, and follows its own pre-
dominant bent and inclination, without taking knowledge
whether the ways and actions towards which it stands bent.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 45
be commanded oi' exliorted unto by God or no : 2. If the will
of a saint be immediately so affected by God, that it stands
inclined and bent to do the things which are pvojier to cause
them to persevere ; then is this bent and inclination wrought
in the will of such a person, after his being a saint, and con-
sequently is not essential to him as a saint, but merely acci-
dental and adventitious: and if so, then is there no incli-
nation or bent in the will of a saint, as such, or from his first
being a saint to persevere, or to do the things which accom-
pany perseverance, but they come to be wrought in him af-
terward ; which how consistent it is with the principles either
of reason or religion, or their own, I am content that my ad-
versaries themselves should judge. 3. If God doth imme-
diately and irresistibly incline, or move the wills of the
saints to do the things which accompany perseverance, the
said exhortations can be no means of effecting this perse-
verance; for the will being physically and irresistibly acted
and drawn by God, to do such and such things, needeth no
addition of moral means, such as exhortations are (if they be
any) in order hereunto; what a man is necessitated to, he
needeth no farther help or means to do it. 4. The things
which accompany perseverance, impart a continuance in faith
and love to the end ; if then the wills of the saints be imme-
diately and irresistibly moved by God thus to continue, I
mean in faith and love to the end, what place is there for
exhortations to come in with their efficiency towards that
perseverance? Need they be exhorted to continue in faith
and love, or to persevere after the end ? Thus then we clearly
see, that the former of the two consequents mentioned can-
not stand; God doth not by .his Spirit irresistibly draw or
move the wills of the saints, to do the things Vv'hich are ne-
cessary for the procuring their perseverance immediately,
or without the instrumental interposure of the said exhor-
tations.'
^4ns. First, the intendment of this, as also of some fol-
lowing sections, is to prove and manifest, that the use of ex-
hortations cannotconsist v.ith the efficacy of internal grace,
and the work of the Spirit in producing and effecting tliose
graces in us, which in those exhortations we are provoked
and stirred up unto. A very sad undertaking, truly, to my
apprehension, and for wluch the church of God ^vill scarce
ever return thanks to them that shall engage in it; he was
4G DOCTRIXE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
of another mind, who cried ' Da Domine quod jubes, et jube
quod vis ;' yea, and the Holy Ghost hath in innumerable
places of Scripture expressed himself of another mind, pro-
mising to work effectually in us, what he requires earnestly
of us ; by the one manifesting the efficacy of his grace, by the
other the exigency of the duty which is incumbent upon us.
Nay, never any saint of God once prayed in his life, seeking
any thing at the hand of God, but was of another mind, if he
understood his own supplications. To what is here urged
against this catholic faith of believers, I say.
That exhortations are the means of perseverance, inas-
much as by them in their place and kind, and with them, the
Spirit of God effectually works this perseverance or the
matter of it in the saints. Those cloudy expressions of * ir-
resistibly and unfrustrably,' we own no farther than as they
denote the certainty of the event, and not the manner of the
Spirit's operation, which also they do very unhandsomely.
We leave out then in the proposal of our judgment about the
use of exhortations, which Mr. Goodwin opposeth, those
terms, and add in their room, 'by and by with those exhorta-
tions,' which he omits.
Hesaith then, 'This cannot be proved, because the saints
live, and die oftentimes, in opposition and disobedience unto
these exhortations.'
But obedience is twofold : First, As to the general frame
of the heart, obedience in the habit; and so it is false that
the saints live at any time in an ordinary course, much less
die in opposition to those exhortations ; tlie law of God
being written in tlieir, hearts, and they delighting in it in
their inward man, they abide therein ; the fiuit of obedience
for the most part being brought forth by them ; and this suf-
ficeth as to their perseverance.
Secondly, It regardeth particular acts of obedience, and
in respect of them we all say, that yet they all sin (' Opti-
mus ille est, qui minimis urgetur'), but this prejudiceth not
their perseverance, nor the general end of the exhortations
afforded them for that purpose.
But he adds, secondly, ' If God by his Spirit irresistibly
draws his saints to persevere, iit supra.'
But this is sorry sophistry, which may be felt, as they say,
through a pair of mittins : for.
First, Who says that God works by force immediately
EXPLAINED AXD COXFIRIMED. 47
tipon the wills of men ? Or who makes force and power to
be terms equivalent ? Or that God cannot put forth the * ex-
ceeding greatness of his power in them that believe,' but he
must force or compel their w ills : or that he cannot ' work
in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure,' immediately
working in and with our wills, but he must so force them.
Secondly, Whence ariseth the disjunctive force of this
argument? Either by immediate actings upon their wills, or
he makes use of those exhortations ? As though the one way
were exclusive of the other, and that the Scripture did not
abundantly and plentifully ascribe both these unto God ;
both that he exhorts us to know him, love him, believe in
him, and gives us an understanding, and a heart so to
do ; working faith and love in us, by the exceeding efficacy
of his power and Spirit : I say then, that God works imme-
diately by his Spirit, in and on the wills of his saints : that
is, he puts forth a real physical power that is not contained
in those exhortations, though he doth it by, and in, and with
them : the irapotency that is in us to do good, is not amiss
termed ethico-pliysica ; both natural and moral ; and the ap-
plications of God to the soul in their doing good, are both
really and physically efficient, and moral also ; the one con-
sisting in the efficacy of his Spirit, the other lying in the
exhortations of the word ; yet so as that the efficacy of the
Spirit is exerted by, and with the moral efficacy of the word;
his works beino; but grace or the law in the heart, the word
being the law written, so that all the ensuing reasonings are
bottomed upon things 7nak divisa, that stand in a sweet har-
mony and compliance with each other.
But Mr. Goodwin tells you ' that if God work by his
Spirit and his grace immediately on the wills of men, to
cause them to persevere, then are exhortations no means of
their perseverance.'
Why so, I pray ? It seems we must have no internal ef-
fectual grace from God, or no outward exhortations of the
v/ord ; but he tells you it must be so, because, if the will be
physically and irresistibly acted and drav.'n by God, to do
such and such things, itneedeth no addition of moral means,
such are exhortations thereunto : that is, if the will be ef-
fectually inclined to the ways of God, by his grace, there is
then no need of the exhortations of the word. But yet,
48 DOCTRTXE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVERANCE
First, the Spirit of God though lie have an immediate ef-
ficacy of liis own, by and with those exhortations, yet by
those exhortations he also inclines the will ; and as he works
on the will as corrupt and impotent, by his grace, so he
works on the will (as the will, or as such a faculty is apt to
be wrought upon by a mediation of the understanding) by
exhortations.
Secondly, To say obedience would have been produced
and wrought had there been no exhortations, is not required
of us, what efficacy soever we ascribe to grace, unless we
also deny exhortations to be appointed of God, and to be
used by the Spirit of God, for the producing of that obe-
dience. Neither,
Thirdly, Doth God work upon the will as a distinct fa-
culty alone of itself, without suiting his operations to the
other faculties of the soul ? nor is grace to be wrought or
carried on in us, merely as we have wills, but as we have
understandings also, whereby the exhortations he is pleased
to use, maybe conveyed to the will and affect it in their kind ;
in a word, this is but repeating what was said before; 'if
there be any effectual grace, there is no use of exhortations ;
if exhortations be the means of continuino; or increasin<^
grace, what need the efficacy of grace or immediate actings
of the Spirit, working in us ' to will and to do of God's good
pleasure :' W iuU validity there is in these inferences, will be
easily discerned; God worketh grace in men, as men, and
as men impotent and corrupted by sin; as men, he vvorks
upon them by means suited to their rational being, by pre-
, cepts and exhortations: but as men impotent and corrupt
by sin, they stand in need of his effectual power, to work
that in them, which he requireth of them : of the terms
wherewith his arguing in this case is clouded and darkened,
enough hath been remarked already.
His second argument to this purpose, viz. 'That the in-
clination of the will to good, and to pei'severe in a saint,
must be after his being made a saint;' is as weak and no
less sophistical than the former; that inclination is radi-
cally wrought in every believer at his conversion, the Spirit
being bestowed on him, which shall abide with him for ever,
and the seed of God laid in his heart that shall remain, and
never utterly (ail, with an habitual inclination to the exercise
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 49
of all those graces wherein their persevering doth consist.
Actually this is wrought in them according to the particular
duties and actings of grace, that are required of them,
which they are carried forth unto, by the daily influence of
life, power, and grace, which they receive from Christ their
head, without whom they can do nothing.
Neither is the third exception of any more validity, being
only a repetition of what was spoken before, rendered some-
thing more impedite, dark, and intricate, by the terms of
'physically, irresistibly,' and ' necessitated,' which how far,
and wherein, we do allow, hath been frequently declared. The
sum of what is spoken amounts to this: ' God's real work in
and upon the soul by his Spirit, and grace, is inconsistent
with the exhortations to obedience :' which we have before
disproved, and do reject it as an assertion destructive to all
the efficacy of the grace of God, and the whole work of it,
upon the souls of men.
What his fourth argument also is, but a repetition of the
same things before crudely asserted in other terms, let them
apprehend that can ; ' if God work faith and love, in the
hearts of his saints, and support them in them to the end,
what place is left for exhortations V I say their own proper
place, the place of means ; of means appointed by God to
stir up his to perseverance, and which himself makes by his
Spirit, and the immediate efficacy thereof, effectual to that
endand purpose ; and 1 know no use of that query, * Are ex-
hortations effectual to persuade men to persevere after the
end?' being built only on his false hypothesis, and beo-gino-
of the thing in question, viz. That if God work faith and love,
and continuance of them in our hearts effectually by his
grace, there is no need, no use of exhortations, though God
so work them, by and with those exhortations ; and this is
his first attempt, upon the first member of the division made
by himself, wherein what success he hath obtained is left to
the judgment of the reader; and, but that I shall not, having
now the part of one that answers incumbent on me, tuv.i
aside unto the proof of things denied, I should easily con-
firm what hath been given in for the removal of his objec-
tions, from the testimony of God, by innumerable places of
Scripture.
He proceeds then, sect. 6. and says,' Secondly, neither can
VOL. Vll. E
50 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
the latter of the said consequences stand, God doth not
make use of the said exhortations, to influence or effect the
wills of the saints upon any such terms, as hereby to make
them infallibly, infrustrably, necessitatingly, willing to per-
severe, or to do the things upon which perseverance de-
pendeth.
* For, first. If so, then one and the same act of the will
should be both physical and moral, and so be specifically
distinguished in, and from itself; for so far as it is produced
by the irresistible force or power of the Spirit of God, it
must needs be physical, the said irresistible working of the
Spirit, being a physical action, and so not proper to produce
a moral effect ; again, as far as the said exhortations are
means to produce or raise this act of the will, or contribute
any thing towards it, it must needs be moral,because exhorta-
tions are moral causes, and so not capable of producing phy-
sical, natural, or necessary effects ; now then if it be impossi-
ble that one and the same act of the will should be both phy-
sical and moral, that is necessary and not necessary, impossi-
ble also it is, that it should be produced by the irresistible
working of God, and by exhortations of this joint efficiency.
' It may be objected, they who hold or grant such an in-
fluence, or operation of the Spirit of God, upon the will which
is frustrable, or resistible, do, or must suppose it to be a phy-
sical action, as well as that which is irresistible ; if so, then
the act of the will, so far as it is raised by the means of this
action, or operation of God, must according to the tenor of
the former arguments be physical also, and so the pretended
impossibility, is no more avoided by this opinion than by
the other.
' I answer : Though such an operation of God upon the
will, as is here mentioned, be in respect of God, and of the
manner of its proceeding from him physical, yet in respect
of the nature and substance of it, it is properly moral, be-
cause it impresseth, and affecteth the will upon which it is
acted, after the manner of moral causes, properly so called,
that is, persuadingly, not ravishingly, or necessitatingly.
When a minister of the gospel in his preaching presseth or
persuade th men to such and such duties or actions, this act
as it proceedeth from him, I mean as it is raised by his natu-
ral abilities of understanding or speaking, is physical or na-
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 51
tural, but in respect of the substance or native tendency of
it, it is clearly moral, viz. because it tendeth to incline or
move the wills of men, to such or such elections, without
necessitating- them thereunto; and so comports with those
arguments or exhortations in their manner of efficiency by
which he presseth or moveth them to such things ; by the
way to prevent stumbling and quarrelling, it no way follows
from the premises, that a minister in his preaching or per-
suading unto duties should do as much as God himself doth
in or towards the persuading of men hereunto, it only follows
that the minister doth co-operate with God, which the apo-
stle himself affirms in order to one and the same effect, (i. e.)
that he operateth in one and the same kind of efficiency
with God, morally or persuadingly, not necessitating, for
where one necessitates, and another only persuades, they
cannot be said to co-operate, or work the one with the other,
no more than two, when the one runs and the other walks a
soft pace, can be said to go or walk together. But when
two persuade in one and the same action, one may persuade
more effectually by many degrees than the other, may have
a peculiar act or method of persuading above the other.'
That which is now undertaken to be proved is, that God
doth not make use of exhortations, as means for the esta-
blishing of the saints in believing, and confirming their per-
severance ; this is that which by us is assigned unto them,
and this is all that the nature of them doth require, that they
should be used unto : the certainty of the event whereunto
they are applied depending not on their nature, as such
means, but on the purpose of God, to use them for that end
which he hath designed, and promised to bring about and
accomplish.
Before he ventures on any opposition to the intendment
of this assertion, he phraseth it so, as either to render it un-
intelligible to himself and others, or (if any thing be signified
by the expressions he useth) to divert it wholly from the
mind of them, and their sense, with whom he hath to do :
who ever said that God by exhortations, doth influence the
wills of men upon such terms, as to make them* infrustrably
and necessitatingly willing to persevere.' Or, can he tell us
what is the meaning of those terms, ' infrustrably, necessita-
tingly willing to persevere ;' though it is easy to guess at what
E 2
52 DOCTRKVE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVERANCE
he here intends, yet it is far above my shallow capacity, to
reach the sense of these expressions. How any of these
terms, relating to the event and issue of things, and in what
sense they may be used, I have often shewed; as relating
either to the manner of God's operation in and upon the
will, or the will's elicitation of its own act (any fartiier than
by relation to that axiom, ' Unumquodque quod est, dum est,
necesse est'), they express neither our sense, nor any body's
else that I know ; that which I shall make bold to take up
for Mr. Goodwin's intendment is ; that God doth not by ex-
hortations effectually cause the saints to persevere ; to be
willing to persevere, is to persevere: to be necessitatingly will-
ing, is, I know not what: now if such an efficacy be ascribed
to exhortations, as teaches the certainty of the effect, so that
the certainty of the effect, as to the event, should be asserted
to depend on them as such means, this is nothing to us ; we
ascribe an efficacy to them in propria geneye, hut the certainty
of that event to whose production they concur, we affirm, as
hath been abundantly declared, to depend on other causes.
But the proof of what is here asserted, outruns for un-
couth strangeness, the assertion itself, equis albis, as they
say : for, saith he, ' If this be so' (that is, as you have heard
above, how, neither he nor we know) ' then the same act of
the will should be both physical and moral ;' and.
First, Why so ? Because physical and moral means are
used for the producing of it ; as though sundry causes of se-
veral kinds, might not concur to produce one uniform effect,
far enough from a necessity of receiving so much as a deno-
mination from each of them ; in the concurrence of several
causes, whereof some may be free and contingent, others natu-
ral and necessary, the effect absolutely follows its next and
immediate cause alone ; God causes the sun to shine freely ;
yet is the shining of the sun, a necessary effect of the sun,
and not any way free or contingent. God determined the
piercing of Christ's side, and so as to the event made it ne-
cessary, but yet was the doing of it in them that did it free,
as to the manner of its doing, and no way necessary.
But, secondly, suppose the same act of the will, should
be said to be both physical and moral upon several accounts?
And what if every act of the will in and about things good or
bad be so I And it be utterly impossible it should be other-
EXPLAlKED AND CONFIRMED. 53
wise ? Yea, ' but then the same act should be specifically
distinguished in and from itself.'
Yea, but who told you so? The terms of physical and
moral, as related to the acts of the will, are very far from
constituting different kinds or species of acts ; being only
several denominations of the same individual acts upon se-
veral regards and accounts; the acts of the will as they flow
from that natural faculty, or are elicited thereby, are all phy-
sical : but as they relate to a law, whence they are good, or
evil, they are moral ; the one term expresseth their being,
the other their regularity and conformity to some rule where-
unto their agents are obliged : Quid digiium tanto ? If by
physical and moral, Mr. Goodwin intends necessary and
free, being the first that ever abused those words, and in that
abuse of them not consistent with himself (affirming after-
ward, the act of a minister's preaching, as proceeding from
his abilities of understanding and speaking, to be physical
or natural, which yet he will not aver to be necessary, but
free), he should have told us so, and then though we would
not grant that the same act, may not in several respects be
both necessary and free, the latter in respect of the manner
of its performance, and nature of its immediate cause, the
former in respect of the event and the determination of its
first causes, yet its consequent is so palpably false, as to the
advancing of his former assertion, that it would have been di'
rectly denied without any farther trouble.
But he adds : * It must needs be physical, because it is
produced by the physical working of the Spirit of God, which
being a physical action cannot produce a moral effect.'
Ans. By physical operation of God on and with the will,
we understand only that which is really and effectually so,
as different from that which is only moral, and by way of
motive and persuasion ; now this we say is twofold. The
first consisting in the concourse of God as the first cause,
and author of all beings to the producing of every entity;
such as the acts of the wills of men are ; and this in such a
way, as is not only consistent with the liberty of the will, in
all its acts and actings whatever; but also, as is the founda-
tion of all the liberty that the will hath in its actings; and
in respect of this influence of God, the effect produced is only
physical or natural, having such a being as is proper to it;
54 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
as also it is in respect of the will itself, and its concurrence
in operation. The other is that which Mr. Goodwin here
calls ' the irresistible force or power of the Spirit:' distin-
guishing the efficacy of the Spirit and grace of God, in their
working in us, to will, and to do, producing those effects, as
they are good and gracious, in reference to their rise, end,
and rule, whereunto they are related. This then is that which
by Mr. Goodwin is here asserted ; ' that if there be such an
effectual real working of the Spirit and grace of God in us
to the producing of any act of the wills of men, they cannot
be moral.' That is, they cannot have any goodness in them
beyond that which is entitative ; and so far, are we now ar-
rived. All efficacious working of the Spirit of God on us
must be excluded, or all we do is good for nothing ; away
with all promises, all prayers, yea, the whole covenant of
grace, they serve for no other end, but to keep us from doing
good ; let us hear the Scripture speak a little in this cause ;
Deut. XXX.6. *The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heartand
the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.' Jer. xxxi.
33. * This shall be the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord; 1 will
put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts;
and will be their God, and they shall be my people.' Chop.
xxxii. 39. * I will give them one heart, and one way that they
may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and their children
after them.' Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27. 'A new heart also will I o-ive
you, and a new spirit will I put within you : and I will take
away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a
heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause
you to w^alk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments
and do them.' Acts xvi. 14. ' God opened the heart of
Lydia, that she attended to the things spoken of Paul.' Phil.
i. 29. * It is given to you in the behalf of Christ, not only to
believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake ;' and, chap. ii.
13. ' For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to
do of his own good pleasure ;' as also Eph. i. 19. * That ye
may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to
usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty
power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from
the dead ;' and, 2 Thess. i. 11. ' We pray always for you that
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 55
our God would fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness
and the work of faith with power ;' so also in 2 Cor. v. 17.
' If any man be in Christ he is a new creature :' for, Eph. ii.
4, 5. * God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith
he loved us, when even we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ ;' causing us, chap. iv. 24. * to put
on that new man which after God is created in righteous-
ness and true holiness ;' with the like assertions, John iii. 3.
James i. 18. 1 Pet. i. 23. John v. 21. 2 Cor. iii. 5, &c.
What may be thought of these and the like expressions?
Do they hold out any real, effectual, internal work of the
Spirit and grace of God, distinct from moral persuasions, or
do they not? If they do, how comes any thing so wrought
in us, and by us to be morally good ? If they do not, we
may bid farewell imto all renewing, regenerating, assisting,
effectual grace of God. That God then by his Spirit and
grace cannot enable us to act morally, and according to a
rule, is not yet proved ; what follows ?
Saith he, ' So far as exhortations are means to produce
these acts, they must be moral, for moral causes are not
capable of producing natural or physical effects.'
But if Mr. Goodwin think that in this controversy, 'physi-
cal,' and * necessary,' as applied to effects, are laodwanovvra,
he is heavenly wide. Physical denotes only their being ne-
cessary, a manner of being as to some of them which have
physically a being. The term natural is ambiguous, and
sometimes used in the one sense, sometimes in the other ;
sometimes it denotes that which is only, sometimes that
which is in such a kind ; by a physical effect, we understand
an effect with respect to its real existency, as by a moral
effect, an effect in respect of its regularity. And now, why
may not a moral cause have an influence in its own kind, to
the production of a physical effect? I mean an influence
suited to its own nature and manner of operation by the way
of motive and persuasion? What would you think of him
that should persuade you to lift your hand above your head,
to try how high you could reach, or whether your arm were
not out of joint?
Secondly, It hath been sufficiently shewed before, that
with these exhortations, which work as appointed means,
morally God exerteth an effectual power for the real pro-
56 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
duction of that whereunto the exhortation tends, dealing
thus with our whole souls suitably to the nature of all their
faculties, as every one of them is fitted and suited to be
wrought upon, for the accomplishment of the end he aims
at, and in the manner that he intends ; briefly, to every act
of the will as an act hi geiiere entis there is required a really
operative and physical concurrence of the providential power
of God in its own order, as the first cause. To every act,
as good or gracious, the operative concurrence and influence
of the Spirit of grace; which yet hinders not but that, by
exhortations, men may be provoked and stirred up to the
performance of acts as such, and to the performance of them,
as good and gracious.
This being not the direct controversy in hand, I do but
touch upon it ; concerning that which follows, I should per-
haps say, we have found anguem in herba, but being so tooth-
less and stingless as it is to any that in the least attend to
it, it may be only termed, the pad in the straw. Physical
and moral are taken to be terms, it seems, equipolent to
necessary, and not necessary ; which is such a wresting of
the terms themselves, and their known use, as men shall not
likely meet withal : hence is it that acts physical and ne-
cessary are the same ; every act of the most free agent under
heaven, yea in heaven or earth, is, in its own nature and
being, physical; acts also are moral, i. e, good or evil, con-
sequently in order of nature to their existence (of which
necessary, or not necessary, are the adjunct manner), in re-
ference to the rule, or law, whereunto their conformity is re-
quired. How moral and not necessary come to be terms of
the same import, Mr. Goodwin will declare perhaps here-
after, when he shall have leisure to teach as much new phi-
losophy, as he hath already done divinity ; in the mean time
we deny, that any influence from God on the wills of men,
doth make any act of them necessary as to the manner of its
production; and so this first argument for the inconsistency
of the use of exhortations with the real efficiency of the
grace and Spirit of God, is concluded.
That which follows in this section to the end, is a pre-
tended answer to an objection of our author's own framing;
being only introduced, to give farther advantage, to express
himself against any real efficiency of the Spirit, or grace of
JEXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 57
God, in the hearts or on the wills of men. Not to insist
upon his darkening the discourse in hand, from his miserable
confounding of those terms physical and moral, formerly-
discovered, I shall, as near as I can, close with his aim in it,
for the more clear consideration thereof.
First, he tells us, * That the operation of God on the will
of man, is, in respect of its proceeding from him, physical,
but in respect of its natureand substance, it is properly moral.'
But, first, If a man should ask Mr. Goodwin, what he in-
tends by this operation of God on the will of man, to the end
intended, I fear he would be very hard put to it, to instance
in any particular : it is sufficiently evident, he acknowledgeth
none in this kind, but what consists in the exhortations of
the word.
Secondly, Having told us before, that physical is as much
as necessary, and moral as not necessary : how comes it
about that the same operation of God, the same act of his
power, is become in several regards physical and moral ?
That is, necessary and not necessary ? Is Mr. Goodwin re-
conciled to the assertion, that the same thing may be said
to be necessary, and not necessary, in sundry respects?
Thirdly, How comes the same actor operation, in respect
of its manner of proceeding from its agent, to be physical,
and in respect of its substance to be moral; or, is any act
moral in respect of its substance, or is its morality an ad-
junct of it, in respect of the regard it hath to some rule, and
farther end : it is an easy thing for any to heap up such
crude assertions, and in the mean time not to know what
they say, nor whereof they do affirm; but the reason, why
the acts of God intimated are moral, is because they per-
suade the will only, or work persuadingly, not ravishingly,
or necessitatingly : that is, in plain terms, there is no opera-
tion of the grace or Spirit of God, in the working of any
good in the heart or wills of men, but only what consisteth
in persuasion of them thereunto. For any real efficiency,
as to the communication of strength, in working in us ' to
will and to do,' it is wholly excluded ; God only persuades,
men have the power in themselves, and of themselves they
do it, let the Scripture say what it will to the contrary ; for
those terms of ravishingly, or necessitatingly, which are op-
posed to this moral persuasion, whereunto the operations of
5B DOCTRINE OF THE SAlNTs' PERSEVERANCE
God, for the production of any good in us, are tied up and
confined, we have been now so inured to them, that they
do not at all startle us. When Mr. Goodwin shall manifest,
that God cannot by the greatness of his power, work in us
to will, without ravishing- our wills, if we guess aright at the
intendment of that expression, he will advance to a con-
siderable success in this contest, not only against us, but
God himself.
But an objection presents itself to our author, which he
sees a necessity to attempt the removal of, lest an apprehen-
sion of its truth, should prove prejudicial to the receiving
of his dictates. And this it is : ' That if it be so, that God
worketh on the will of man by the way of persuasion only,
he doth no more than the ministers of the gospel do, who
persuade men by the word to that which is good.' To this he
tells you, ' That it indeed follows, that God and ministers
work on the will of man in the same way, with the same kind
of efficiency, but yet in respect of degrees, God may per-
suade more effectually than a minister.'
First, That all really efficient, internal working grace of
God was denied by Mr. Goodwin, was before discovered ; here
only it is more plainly asserted. All the workings of God
on the wills of men unto good, are merely by persuasion :
persuasion we know gives no strength, adds no power, to
him that is persuaded to any thing ; it only provokes him
and irritates him to put forth, exert, and exercise the power
which is in himself, unto the things whereunto he is per-
suaded, upon the motives and grounds of persuasion pro-
posed to him; and the whole effect produced on that account,
is, in solidum, to be ascribed to the really efficient cause of
it, howsoever incited or stirred up. Whereas then, men by
nature are dead, blind, unbelieving, enemies to God, he per-
suades them only to exert the power that is in them, and
thereby to live, see, believe, and be reconciled to him : and
this is to exalt the free grace of God by Jesus Christ. We
know full well who have gone before you in these paths,
but shall heartily pray, tliat none of the saints of God may
follow after you, into this contempt of the work of his grace.
But,
Secondly, If nothing but persuasion be allowed to God in
the work of men's conversion, and in the carrying on of their
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 59
obedience to the end, wherein doth the persuasion of God
consist, in distinction from the persuasion used in and from
the word by ministers, which it is pretended that it may excel
(though it is not aflfirmed that it doth) many degrees. Let
it be considered, I say, in what acts of the will, or power of
God, his persuasion, so distinct as above mentioned, doth
consist: let us know what arguments he useth, by what
means he applies them, how he conveys them to the wills of
men, that are not coincident with those of the ministry. I
suppose, ^t last, it will be found, that there is no other ope-
ration of God in persuading men, as to the ends under con-
sideration, but only what lies or consists in the persuading
of the word by the ministers thereof ; God looking on with-
out the exerting of any efficacy whatever, which is indeed
that which is aimed at, and is really exclusive of the grace
of God, from any hand in the conversion of sinners, or pre-
servation of believers.
Thirdly, He doth not indeed assert any such persuading
of God ; but only tells you, that from what he hath spoken, it
doth not follow, * that God doth no more than ministers in
persuading men ; and that when two persuade to one and
the same action, one may be more effectual in his persuad-
ing than another :' but that God is so, or how he is so, or
wherein his peculiar persuasions do consist, there is not in
his discourse the least intimation.
Fourthly, There is in men a different power as to per-
suasion ; some having a faculty that way, far more eminent
and effectual than others, according to their skill and profi-
ciency in oratory and persuasive arts ; this only is ascribed
to God, that he so excels us, as one man excels another: but
how that excellency of his is exerted, that is not to be un-
derstood. But there is proof tendered you of all this, from
1 Cor. iii. 9. where ministers are said, * to co-operate with
God, which they cannot do, unless it be with the same kind
of efficiency ; (well said ;) and that when one works necessi-
tatingly, and another by persuasion, they cannot be said to
co-operate, no more than one that runs, or another that walks,
can be said to walk together.' Certainly our author never
dreamed, that any man whatever would put himself to the
trouble of examining these dictates, or he would have been
more wary of his asserting them, and we had not had so much
GO DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVEllANCE
not only new and strange divinity, but new and uncouth
philosophy, heaped up without any considerable endeavour
of proof or confirmation.
First, That two agents cannot concur or co-operate to
the producing of the same effect, but with the same kind of
efficiency, is a rare notion indeed: was he never persuaded
to do any thing in his life ? What thinks he of David's and
the Amorite's killing of Uriah? of a judge and an executioner
slaying a malefactor; of God and Satan moving David to
number the people ; of God and Joseph's brethren sending
him to Egypt? But what need I mention instances? Who
knows not that this so confounds all causes efficient, and
that principal and instrumental, material, final, formal, which
in their production of effects, have all their distinct efficiency,
and yet their co-operation.
Secondly, The proof from the Scripture mentioned, ex-
tends only to the interesting of ministers in the great honour
of co-operating with God, in the work of begetting and in-
creasing faith in their own sphere, according to the work to
them committed. But that God and they do work with the
same kind of efficiency, it is the main intendment of the
apostle in the place cited, 1 Cor. iii. to disprove. He tells
you indeed, there is a work of planting and watering, com-
mitted to the ministers of the gospel ; but the giving of in-
crease (a peculiar working with a distinct kind of efficiency),
that is alone to be ascribed to God. It is, I say, his design
(who every where abundantly informs us, that ' Faith is the
gift of God, wrought in us by the exceeding greatness of his
power') to prove in this place, that though the dispensation
of the word of the gospel be committed unto men, yet their
whole ministry will be vain, and of none effect, unless by an
immediate efficacy or working of his Spirit, giving and be-
stowing faith on his elect, God do give an increase.
Thirdly, For the term of ' necessitating' put upon the real
effectual work of God's grace on the wills of men, giving
them power, assistance, and working in them to will and to
do, as different from that which is purely moral or persuasive,
only which communicates no strength or power, 1 shall need
no more, but to reject it with the same facility, wherewith
it is imposed on us. The similitude of one walking, and
another running, wherewith the inconsistency of a real effi-
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 61
cient work of grace, with persuasions, so far as that they
should be said to co-operate to the producing of the same
effect, doth not in the least illustrate what it is intended to
set off; for though one run and another go softly (as suppose
one carrying a little loaf, another a great burden of meat for a
supper), and both going to the same place. Why may not they
be said to co-operate to the providing of the same supper?
Must all agents that co-operate to the producing of the same
effect, be together in one place? You may as soon bring hea-
ven and hell together as prove it. And why must real effi-
ciency be compared to running, and persuasion to soft walk-
ing? as though one were supposed to carry on the work faster
than the other: when we say only, that in the one there is a
distinct power exerted from what is in the other; which that
it may be done, might be proved by a thousand instances, and
illustrated by as many similitudes, if any pleasure were taken
to abound in causa J'acili. God or man then co-operate in re-
spect of the tendency of their working unto the event, not
in respect of the kinds of their efficiency.
Of the seventh section (whereon we shall not need long
to insist), which in the entrance frames an objection and
pretends an answer to it, there are three parts. In the first
he says, that we affirm, ' That though the will be necessi-
tated by God, yet it is free in her election, which how it may
be he understands not.' But if this were all the inconve-
nience that Mr. G. could not understand how to salve the
operation of God in man, with the liberty of his will, seeing
as wise men as himself have herein been content to capti-
vate their understandings to the obedience of faith, it were
not much to be stumbled at; but the truth is, the chimera
whose nature he professeth himself unacquainted withal, is
created in his own imagination, where it is easy for every
man to frame such notions, as neither himself nor any else
can bring to a consistency with reason or truth. Of neces-
sitating; the will to election, we have had occasion more than
once already to treat, and shall not burden the reader with
needless repetitions.
In the second division of the section, he gives you his
judgment of the manner of the work of God upon the soul
unto the doing of that which is good, and the effect pro-
duced thereby ; whereof the one, as was said before, consists
62 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
in persuasions, which he says * are thus far irresistible, that
they who are to be persuaded cannot liinder but that God
may persuade them or exhort them, though he prevail not
with them.' Which doubtless is a notable exaltation of his
grace. Thus Mr. Goodwin works irresistibly with one or
other, perhaps every day : and the effect of this persuasion
is (that is, when it is effectual), that impression which it
leaves upon the soul to the things whereunto it is persuaded.
As the case is in the dealing of men one with another, for
my part, I see no reason why our author should so often,
so heedfully, deliver his judgment concerning this thing, es-
pecially without the least attempt of any scriptural proof or
endeavour to answer those innumerable clear and express
places of Scripture, which he knows are every where, and on
all occasions, produced and insisted on, to prove a real effi-
cient acting of God in and with the wills of men, for the pro-
ducing, working, and accomplishing that which is good in
a way distinct from that of persuasion, which contributes no
real strength to the person persuaded, concurring only meta-
phorically in the producing of the effect. Let this at last
then suffice ; we are abundantly convinced of his denial of
the work of God's grace in the salvation of souls.
In the third place, we have a rhetorical flourish over that
which he hath been laying out his strength against all this
while, being a mere repetition of what hath been already
tendered, and given into consideration over and over. If
God cause the saints effectually to persevere (his terms of
irresistibly and necessitating, have been long since dis-
charged from any farther attendance or service in this war-
fare) by exhortations, then are all his promises of perse-
verance in vain. But why so? May not God enjoin the use
of means, and promise by them the attainment of the end?
May he not promise that to us, which he will work himself
eflTectually in us ? If God effectually work in us, to give us
by what means soever a new heart, may he not promise to
give us a new heart ? ' Yea, but amongst men this would be
incongruous, yea, ridiculous, that a father should promise
his son an inheritance, and then persuade him to take heed
that he may obtain it.'
But, first. If this be incongruous, yea, ridiculous, amongst
men in their dealings with one another, doth it therefore
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 63
follow, that it must be so as to God's dealings with men?
' Are his thoughts as our thoughts, and his ways as our
ways V Is not the wisdom of God foolishness with men, and
theirs much more so with him? Are men bound in their
dealings with others, to consider them not only in their na-
tural and civil relations, but as impotent and corrupted men,
as God in his dealings with them doth ?
Secondly, Neither is this course so ridicvdous amongst
men, as Mr. Goodwin imagineth ; that a father having pro-
mised his son an inheritance, and instated it on him, or as-
sured it to him, should exhort and persuade him to behave
himself worthy of his kindness, and to take heed that he
come to the enjoyment of the inheritance which he hath
provided for him, by the means that he hath appointed (for
the prescription of means for the enjoyment of the hiherit-
ance must be supposed to go along with the promise and
assurance), is far from being a course so ridiculous as is pre-
tended.
Neither, thirdly. Is this similitude analogous with that
which it is produced to illustrate. For,
1. A man may know how, and when, and on what ac-
count, an inheritance is settled on him by his father. Of
what God promiseth, Ave have faith only, not knowledge,
properly so called ; nor always the assurance of faith, as
to the enjoyment of the thing promised, but the adher-
ence of faith, as to the truth and faithfulness of the pro-
miser. Nor,
2. Can a father work in his son that obedience which he
requireth of him, as he can do, who * creates a new heart in
us and writes his law and fear therein,'
3. This absolute engagement to bestow an inheritance,
whether the means of obtaining it be used and insisted on or
no, is a thing most remote from what we ascribe to the Lord
in his promises of perseverance, which are only that believers
shall persevere by the use of means, which means he exhorts
them to use, and yet dealing with them in a covenant of grace
and mercy, entered into upon account of their utter insuffi-
ciency in themselves to do the things that are well pleasing
to him, whereunto they are so exhorted. He himself effec-
tually and graciously, according to the tenor of that cove-
nant, works in them what he requires of them, bearing them
64 DOCTRIXE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVERANCE
forth, in the power of his grace, to the use of the means ap-
pointed.
His sections eight and nine, contain and endeavour for
the taking off an instance usually given of pressing to the
use of means, where the end is infallibly promised to be ac-
complished and brought about in and by the use of those
means. And this is in the passage of Paul, Acts xxvii.
whereof something formerly hath been spoken ; Paul re-
ceives a promise from God, 'That none of the lives of the per-
sons with him in the ship should perish;' this he declares
to his company ; and how deeply he was concerned in the ac-
complishment of the promise, and his prediction thereupon,
upon the account of the undertaking wherein, against almost
all the world, he was then engaged, and the cause for which
he was committed to their company and custody, was for-
merly declared. Notwithstanding this, he afterward ex-
horts them, and directs to the use of all means imaginable,
that were suitable for the fulfilling of the promise he had, and
the prediction he had made. Evident it is then, that there
is no inconsistency, nor any thing unbecoming any perfec-
tion in God, in that compliance of promises and exhorta-
tions which we insist upon : he having directed Paul, to
walk in that very way and path. God, we say, in the cove-
nant of grace, hath promised that his saints * shall never
leave him, nor forsake him:' that he will abide in unchangfe-
able constancy to be their God ; that he will preserve them,
and keep them in his hand unto the kingdom of his Son in
glory, saving his redeemed ones, with an everlasting salva-
tion, to the accomplishment of the end promised, which he
will upon the account of his truth and faithfulness bring
about, by means suitable unto, and instituted by him for that
end. In the compassing and effecting of this great work,
God dealeth with men under a twofold consideration.
First, As rational creatures; so he discovers to them the
end promised, with its excellency, loveliness, and satisfac-
tion, thereby stirring up in them desires after it, as that emi-
nent and proportioned good, which they iu the utmost issue
of their thoughts and desires aim at. Farther, on the fore-
mentioned account, that they are rational creatures, endued
with a rational appetite or will, for the choosing of that which
is good, and an understanding to judge of it, and of the
EXPLATVED AlVD CONFIRMED. 65
means for the attainment of the end ; God reveals to them
the means conducing to the end, proposing them to them to
be chosen and embraced, and closed withal for the compass-
ing of the end proposed. And that they may be yet dealt
withal agreeably to their nature, and those principles in them,
which they are created withal, that God might have glory
by their acting suitably to such a nature, and such princi-
ples, he exhorts and provokes them to choose those ways
and means, which he hath so allotted (as before mentioned)
for the end aimed at ; and that they should be thus dealt
withal, their very natural condition of being free intellectual
agents doth require.
Secondly, As sinners or agents disenabled in themselves
for the work prescribed to them, and required of them, for
the attaining of the end they aim at, namely, in spiritual
things : and on that account, he puts forth towards them,
and in them, the efficacy of his power, for the immediate and
special working of those things in them, and by them, and
which, as rational creatures bound unto an orderly obedience,
they are pressed and exhorted unto. To manifest the incon-
sistency of such a procedure, and the unanswerableness of
it, to the infinite wisdom of God (though the Scriptures ex-
pressly deliver it in innumerable places, as hath been shewn)
is that which by Mr. Goodwin is in this discourse attempted.
His particular endeavour in the place under consideration is,
to manifest that, when God promiseth to bring about and
effect any thing infallibly (by the use of means), it is in vain
altogether, that any exhortation should be urged on them,
who are to use the means so appointed, for the accomplish-
ment of it. And to the instance above mentioned, concern-
ing Paul, he replies, chap. 13. sect. 8.
* First, It is the generally received opinion of divines, that
promises of temporal good things are still conditional, and
not absolute ; which opinion they maintain upon grounds
not easily shaken. Now evident it is, that the promise under
question, was a promise of this nature and kind, relating only
to the preservation of the temporal lives of men.'
A}is. That all promises of temporal things without ex-
ception, are conditional, that is, so as to be suspended on
any conditions, not promised to be wrought with equal as-
surance to that which depends on them, is not the judgment
VOL. vii. F
6G DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE
of any divine I know, unless it be of Mr. Goodwin, and
those of the same persuasion with him in the matter of our
present controversy. Whoever but they will say (if they
will), that the promise of bring-ing the children of Israel out
of Egypt was conditional ? Let them that do say so assign
the condition on which the accomplishment of that promise
was suspended. The promise made to the parents of Samson
of his birth and mighty actions, what condition was it sus-
pended on? And yet was it a promise of a temporal thing.
Though this may be accounted a general rule, because for
the most part it is so, yet may not God make a particular
exception thereunto 1 Did he not so in the case of Hezekiah,
as to his living fifteen years, as also in those cases before
mentioned? It is true all such promises have appointed,
means for their accomplishment, but not conditions whereon
their fulfilling is absolutely suspended.
But he adds, 'Those words of Paul to the centurion and
soldiers lately mentioned (Except these abide in the ship ye
cannot be safe), undeniably prove the said promise to have
been not absolute, but conditional ; for in case God should
have promised absolutely and without all exception that
they should have been safe, Paul had plainly contradicted
the truth of it by affirming, not that they should not, but
that they could not, be safe, otherwise than upon the condi-
tion of the mariners abiding in the ship.'
Afts. 1. This is boldly ventured ; God promiseth that the
end shall be accomplished ; Paul exhorteth to the use of the
means for the attainment of that end, and in that contradicts
the truth of God's promise, if it be not conditional ; and
why so? Who ever said that God promised that they should
be safe and preserved in the neglect of means? They were
men, and not stones, that God promised so to safeguard.
And it was by his blessing upon means that he intended to
preserve them ; therefore, he that stirred them up to the use
of means, contradicted the promise, unless it were condi-
tional. Paul says nideed, they could not be safe unless the
mariners abode in the ship; not suspending the certainty of
God's promise upon their continuance in the ship, but ma-
nifestino- the means whereby God would bring about their
safety.
That which ensues in the two following exceptions (as.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 67
Paul's persuading them to take meat, which conduced to
their safety, and their casting the wheat into the sea for the
same end), amounts no higher than the aftirmations already
considered. Asserting an infallible promise of an end to be
attained by means, and an exhortation to the use of means,
with the actual use of them on the account of their neces-
sity as means, are inconsistent; which is plainly, without
the least show of proof or truth, to beg the thing in question.
Neither is his case in hand at all promoted by comparing
this particular promise given at such atime and season, with
those general promises of earthly blessings made to the obe-
dience of the Jews in the land of Canaan, mentioned Deut.
xxviii. 3, 4.
Of that which, sixthly, follows in the ninth section, being
a marvellous pretty discourse about the promise here made,
as thouo;h it should be only this, that though the ship were
lost and miscarried, yet none of them in it should perish
thereby (merely upon the account of the ship's miscarrying),
though on some other account, they might be drowned at
the same time; which upon narrow scanning he hath at last
found out to be the sense of the place, may well deserve the
consideration of them who have nothing else to do ; for my
part I have other employment.
That which we affirm concerning the words of God by
his angel, to Paul, is, that they were such a promise as
could not but infallibly be accomplished, according to the
tenor of what is in those words expressed ; nor in respect of
the faithfulness of God could it otherwise be, but that it
must so fall out and come to pass as was appointed, although
the accomplishment of it was to be brought about by the
eminent blessing of God, upon the means that were to be
used by them, to whom and concerning whom it was given.
For, first. The promise was not only concerning the ma-
riners and the rest in the ship, for the preservation of whom
the means formerly mentioned were used, but of Paul's appear-
ance before Caesar, a great and eminent work whereunto he was
designed; Acts ix. 15. 'Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought
before Caesar.' Look then what infallibility in respect of the
event there was, as to Paul's appearance before Caesar, the
same there w as in the preservation of the lives of the rest
with him. Now although the staying of the mariners from
F 2
68 DOCTRIXE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVERANCE
going out of the ship, was a means that Paul was kept alive
to be brouglit before Csesar, yet can any one be so forsaken
of common sense as to say, that it was the condition of the
purpose of God, concerning the fulfilling of that testimony,
which according to his appointment Paul was to make at
Rome, with all the mighty and successful travel for the pro-
pagation of the gospel, which he after this was engaged in,
was it all now cast upon the fall of an uncertain condition,
not at all determined of God as to its accomplishment '^ Doth
the infinitely wise God delight to put the purposes of his
heart, and those of so great concernment to the kingdom of
his Son, and his own glory, in the everlasting welfare of in-
numerable souls, to such uncertain hazards, which by various
ways obvious and naked before his eyes, he could have pre-
vented ?
Secondly, It is part of the pfediction of Paul from the
promise he had received (and therewith a revelation there-
of), that they should be cast upon a certain island, God hav-
ing some work for him there to do ; now was this part of
the promise conditional or no ? If it be said that it was, let
the condition on which it depended be assigned. Notliing
can be imagined, unless it be that the wind sat in such or such
a quarter ; it is then supposed that God promised Paul and his
company, should be cast on an island for their preserva-
tion, provided the wind served for that end or purpose : but
who I pray commands the winds and seas ? Doth the v^ind
so 'blow where it listeth,' as not to be at the command of
its maker? It is not enough that we cast off his yoke and
sovereignty from man, but must the residue of the creation
be forced so to pay their homage to our free wills as to be
exempted thereby from God's disposal? If this part of the
promise were infallible and absolute, as to the certainty of
its accomplishment, why not the other part of it also ?
Thirdly, Paul makes confession of liis faith to his com-
pany, concerning tlie accomplishment of this promise. I
believe God, saith he, on omwg tartu kciO' uv Tpoirov XtXaAjjrat
juot. It shall 'so come to pass in the same manner as it was
told me ;' clearly engaging the truth and faithfulness of that
God which he woi'sliipped (for his testimony to vvliose truth
he was then in bonds) for the accomplishment of what he
had spoken to them: viz. 'that not one of tliem should be
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. G9
lost.' Now supposing that anyone person had by any acci-
dent fallen out of the ship, Mr. Goodwin tells you there had
been no opportunity or possibility left unto God to have ful-
filled his promise ; true, for it had been wholly frustrated,
he having undertaken for the lives of every one of them ;
but supposing that engagement of his, he that says any one
might have so perished, is more careful doubtless to defend
his own hypothesis than the honour of the truth and faith-
fulness of God.
Evident then it is, notwithstanding the tortures, racks,
and wheels, applied by Mr. Goodwin to this text, with the
confession pretended (and but pretended) to be extorted
from it (which but that it hath gotten sanctuary under his
name and wing, would be counted ridiculous), that here is
a promise of God, making an event infallible and necessary
in respect of its relation thereto, by a clear consistency with
exhortations to the use of free and suitable means, for the
accomplishment of the thing so promised.
Sect. 10. He objects farther to himself, 'That in sundry
places of Scripture, as 1 Cor. x. 12, 13. Phil.ii. 12, 13. Heb,
vi. 4, 5. 9. there are promises of perseverance, and exhorta-
tions unto it joined together, and therefore men who deny a
regular and due consistency between them, do impute folly
and weakness to the Holy Ghost.' Whereunto he answers
sundry things to the end of the eleventh section. As,
' First, They are many degrees nearer to the guilt of the
crime specified, who affirm the conjunction mentioned to be
found in the said Scriptures, than they who deny the legitima-
cy of such a conjunction; the incongruity of the conjunction
hath been sufficiently evinced, but that any such conjunc-
tion is to be found either in the Scriptures quoted, or in any
others, is no man's vision, but his who hath darkness for
vision.'
Aiis. If our adversary's ipse dixit may pass current, we
shall quickly have small hopes left of carrying on the cause
under consideration. AH our testimonies must be looked
npon as cashiered long since from attending any longer on
the trial in hand, and all our arguments as blown away like
flies in the summer. The very things here in question, viz.
That there is an inconsistency between promises of perse-
verance, and exhortations to the use of the means whereby
70 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERAXCE
it may be effected ; that God hath made no such promises,
or appointed no such exhortations, and that those who ap-
prehend any such things have darkness for vision, are all
confirmed by the renewed stamp of teste meipso ; to which
proof 1 shall only say, 'Valeat quantum valere potest.'
But he adds, 'That in none of the places cited, is there
any promise of perseverance, is evident to him that shall
duly consider the tenor and import of them.
'For, first. It is one thing to say and teach, that God will
so limit as well the force as the continuance of temptations,
that the saints may be able to bear ; another to make a pro-
mise of absolute perseverance ; yea, those very words. That
ye may be able to bear it, clearly import, that all that is here
promised unto the believing Corinthians, is an exhibiting of
means to perseverance, if they will improve them according-
ly, not an infallible certainty of their perseverance. And that
caveat. Let him that thinketh he stands take heed lest he fall,
plainly supposeth a possibility of his falling, who thinketh
upon the best grounds that he standeth sure ; for that this
caveat was not given to hypocrites or unsound believers, or
to such who please themselves with a loose and groundless
conceit of the goodness of their condition Godvvard, is evi-
dent, because it were better that such men should fall from
their present standing of a groundless conceit, than continue
their standing ; nor would the apostle have ever cautioned
Buch to take heed of falling away, whose condition was more
like to be made better than worse by their falling. And be-
sides, to understand the said caveat of loose believers, over-
throws the pertinency of it to their cause who insist upon it,
to prove a due consistency between exhortations to perse-
verance, and promises to perseverance, as is evident. If then
it be directed to true and sound believers, it clearly suppos-
eth a possibility at least of their falling, in case they shall
not take heed, or else their taking heed would be no means,
at least no necessary means, of their standing. And farther,
it supposeth also a possi])ility at least of their non-taking
heed, or that they might possibly not take heed hereof, other-
wise the caveat or admonition had been in vain ; men have
no need of being admonished to do that which they are under
no possibility to omit. If then the standing or persevering
of the saints depends upon their taking heed lest they fall.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 71
and their taking heed in this kind be such a thing which
they may possibly omit, evident it is that there is a possi-
bility of their non-persevering.'
A/is. This last division of the tenth section labours to
evince, that in the first of the places above mentioned, viz.
1 Cor. X. 12, 13. there is not a promise of perseverance, in
conjunction with exhortations unto the use of means unto
that end. The words are, 'Wherefore, let him that thinketh
he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation
taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful,
who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are
able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape,
that ye may be able to bear it.' But,
First, It is not in the least measure necessary, or can be
upon any account whatever required of us, that we should
produce texts of Scripture in an immediate dependance and
coherence in the same place, containing both the promises
and exhortations mentioned ; they being for the most part
proposed upon most different accounts, and for immediately
different ends and purposes ; the one (namely), as in the re-
velation of them, respecting of our consolation, the other our
obedience. Nor can they ever the more be denied to be in a
conjunction and consistency, though they were not to be
found but in different places of Scripture (which that they
are, especially as to that case which is questioned, hath
been abundantly declared), than if they were still com-
bined in the same coherence and connexion of words. But
yet.
Secondly, I say there is, in the place forenamed, a most
pathetical exhortation to the use of the means whereby we
may persevere, and a most infallible promise, that we shall
so persevere, and not, by any temptation whatever, be utterly
cast down or separated from God in Christ. The first in ver.
12. 'Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed
lest he fall;' and ver. 14. 'Wherefore my dearly beloved
flee from idolatry;' the latter in ver. 13. 'There hath no
temptation taken you,' &c. First, That there is an exhortation
to the use of means for perseverance, is not denied by our
author, but granted, with an attempt to improve it for the
furtherance of his own design. That there is a promise also
of perseverance, is no less evident ; the diversion and turning
72 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
away of any believer from God must be by temptation.
Temptations are of various sorts, both in respect of their im-
mediate rise, nature, and efficiency : whatever (whence ever
it proceed) turns from God, more or less, in part or in whole,
as is imagined, is temptation. Now the apostle here engageth
the faithfulness of God in the preservation of believers from
the power of temptations, so as it shall not prevail against
them to the ends before specified. ' God (saith he) is faithful :'
and there is no need of his mentioning that property of God,
which is his immutable constancy in the performance of his
promises, but only to assure believers, that he will preserve
them as he hath spoken ; the thing promised by the apostle
in the name of God, is (not only that the saints may be able
tobear temptations that shall befal them, virtp o SwacrOe, and
Tov ^vvaaOai vnag vrrevtyKHv, hdi\ in g quite anotherimportance
than what is here intimated in tlie expression ' may be able,'
in capital letters) that he will not suffer any temptation to
come upon them, that shall be above that strength (and per-
valent against it) which he will communicate to them : and
for those which do befal them he will make way for their
escaping, that with and by the strength received they may
bear them. So that not only sufficiency of means to perse-
vere, but perseverance itself by those means, and God's or-
dering all things so in his faithfulness, that no assault shall
befal them above the power of the strength given them to
bear, is here asserted. Now the promise here given is either
absolute or conditional. If absolute, that is, so far as that
it shall infallibly be accomplished, not so depending on any
thing that in respect of the event may, or may not be, as to
be left at uncertainty for its fulfilling, it is all that is of us
desired. If it shall be said that it is conditional, I desire
that the condition from whence it is so said to be, may be
assigned. If it shall be said (as it is) that it is ' in case they
willingly suffer not themselves to be overcome of tempta-
tions;' I ask, whether the strength and ability that God
affords to his saints to resist temptations, be not in the
strengthening and confirming their wills against them? And
if so, whether this promise so interpreted doth not resolve
itself into this proposition, 'I will not suffer my saints to be
overborne by temptations, above the strength I will give them
to bear, provided they be not pressed with temptations above
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 73
the strength I give unto them.' The promise then is abso-
lute, either that no temptations shall befal believers above
that they have received, or, that strength not to be overcome,
shall be afresh communicated to them upon the assaults of
any new temptations.
3. This being established, that here is a firm promise of
perseverance, against which Mr. G. opposeth scarce any
thing at all, and nothing at all to the purpose, his whole en-
suing discourse falls of itself; for from the caveat used at
the entrance of this promise, and the exhortation at the close,
both tending to stir up the saints, to whom the promise is
made (many of whom have no distinct assurance of their in-
terest in this, or any other promise), to be heedfuUy careful
in using the means of perseverance, and avoiding the sins
that in their own nature tend to the interruption of it; no
other possibility of falling away can be concluded, but such
as may have a consistency with the faithfulness of God in
the promise he hath given : that is, a possibility, as they say,
* in sensudiviso,' without respect had to the infallibly prevent-
ing causes of it; not 'in sensu composito.' A possibility in
reference to the nature of the things themselves, which is a
sufficient bottom for caveats to be given, and exhortations
to be made to them concerned in them, not at all in respect
of the purposes and promises of God, infallibly preventino-
the reducing into act, of that possibility. These exceptions
then notwithstanding, it appears in the 1 Cor. x. 1 — 14.
there is a conjunction of a gracious promise of perseverance,
with effectual exhortations to the use of means whereby we
may persevere; and consequently, they who deny a due con-
sistency between them, do impute folly or weakness to the
Holy Ghost ; liirep t'Sa SdHai.
He proceeds to the next place pointed to by himself, to
prove a consistency between promises and exhortations
under consideration : to wit, Phil. ii. -12, 13. 'Wherefore,
my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling : for it is God which worketh
in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.' Evident
it is, that you have here conjoined by the Holy Ghost as
weighty and pathetical an exhortation, as he almost any
where useth in the Scripture, with an assertion of grace, as
74 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
eminently operative and effectual, as by any means can be
expressed.
But, saith he, ' It is one thin^ to affirm that God worketh
in man as to vail so to do, i. e. to enable men to do or put
in execution what they first will, or to assist in the doing or
executing- itself, another to promise or work infallibly, and
without all possibility of frustration in men, perseverance.
There is little or no affinity between these : but how and in
what sense God is said to be IvipyCjv, working in men both
to will and to do of his good pleasure, we shall have occasion
to open more at large in the latter part of this work.'
Ans. I dare say, an indiffisrent reader will conclude, that
Mr. Goodwin was very hard put to it for an answer, finding
him contenting himself with such sorry shifts, and evident
pervertings of the words of the text, as those here mentioned.
For, first. How come the words to be changed into a work-
ing,'as to Vt^ill, so to do,' that is, perhaps, neither the one nor
the other? who taught him to render koi to ^iXuv, koI to
Ivepyeiv, 'as to will, so to do?' But, secondly. The chief of the
sport made with the words, consists in the exposition given
of them, as they lie in this new translation ; ' to work in thera
as to will, so to do ; that is, to do ; what they first will ; not
that he works in them to will, but that he assists them in
doing what they first will.' But Vi'hat is now become of the
tdtn qiidm, above mentioned ? how doth he work in them as
to will, so to do, if he only assists them in doing, what of
themselves without his assistance they first will? Rather
than it shall be granted, that God by his grace works effec-
tually on the wills of men, to the producing of their elicit
acts of believing and obedience, any course may be war-
ranted for the perverting of the expressions, w'here such an
operation seems to be held out. Perhaps this persuasion also,
of the efficacy of the grace of God on the wills of men, is
such, that if it be found, in any place of Scripture, to be de-
clared or asserted, it is enough to make wise and consider-
ing prudent men to question their authority. But, thirdly,
saith he, ' This is not infallibly to work perseverance.' I say,
shew what else is required to perseverance, but to 'will and
do,' according to the mind of God, which of his own good
pleasure, he promiseth effectually to work in believers, and
you say something that may render your reasonings const-
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 75
derable ; but it seems we must be kept in abeyance for an
answer to this, until his criticism be ready to manifest, how
God is said to be Ivi^ywv, 'working in men,' perhaps what is
never wrought without any such effect as is imagined. What
may by him be brought forth to this purpose, time will shew.
But if he be able to make 6 S'toc l(TTtv 6 £i'£p7aiv Iv vfxlv, ' God
is working in you to will and to do,' foi'sooth from the parti-
cipal expression of the verb, he will manifest more skill in
Greek, than he hath hitherto in divinity, in all his learned
treatises. So that here is a second instance of a conjunction
of promises of perseverance, with exhortations to use the
means suited thereunto; which whoso denies to have a just
and sweet consistency, do charge the Holy Ghost with folly
or w^eakness ; oTrap fSti ^ei^ai.
Thirdly, The verses pointed to out of Heb. vi. 4, 5. 9.
do not so directly express the conjunction insisted on, as
those places already considered do; only the discourse there
used by the apostle is peremptory, that men may, without
any disparagement to their wisdom or reason, earnestly deal
with others, and exhort them to avoid falling away from God,
though they are fully persuaded, that those whom they so
exhort, by the help of those exhortations, and upon other
considerations, shall abide with God to the end, or be at-
tended with things accompanying salvation. But had Mr.
Goodwin been pleased to look to the following verses,
wherein the apostle gives an account of the ground of this
persuasion of his, he might have found something to exer-
cise the best of his skill upon. The words are, * Beloved,
we are persuaded better things of you, and things that ac-
company salvation, though we thus speak : for God is not
unrighteous to forget your w^ork and labour of love which
ye have shewed towards his name, in that ye have minis-
tered to the saints, and do minister: and we desire that every
one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of
hope unto the end.' He tells them, ver. 10. it is upon the ac-
count of the righteousness of God, in carrying on the work
of their labour of love which was begun in them, and which
they had shewn or manifested, that he had this persuasion
concerning them; which, in the ensuing verses, he farther
pursues, clearing up the engagement of the righteousness of
God in his oatl) ; of which elsewhere. So that notwilhstand-
76 DOCTRIXE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVERAXCE
ing any thing attempted to the contrary, evident it is that, in
carrying- on the work of our salvation, the Holy Ghost doth
make use of promises of effectual grace for perseverance, and
eminent exhortations to abide with God, in such a harmony
and consistency, as is well suited to the things themselves,
and in a course which taV;es sanctuary under the shade of
his wisdom from all the charges of folly and weakness, which
poor weak and foolish men may, under their temptations,
and in their darkness, rise up against it withal; whether there
are express promises of perseverance in the Scripture, some
advantage I hope will be given to the pious reader to judge,
from what hath been spoken, and what, by the Lord's assist-
ance, may be insisted on to that purpose.
Unto this debate about the exhortations of the word we
find a discourse of the same nature and importance subjoined
about the threatenings that are therein, which, as it is as-
serted, are rendered useless and ineftectualfor the end where-
unto they are of God appointed, by that doctrine of perse-
verance, which is opposed. We freely acknowledge, that if
any doctrine whatever, do enervate and render vain any or-
dinance or institution of God as to the ends and purposes
whereunto it is of him appointed, that that doctrine is not
of God, whose paths are all plain and equal, and whose com-
mands do not interfere one with another. Now that the
principles of the doctrine of perseverance do destroy the effi-
ciency of threatenings, is attempted to be proved by an in-
duction of observations, which being the sum of all that is
spoken to this head, must be transcribed at large, and is as
followeth.
Sect 12. * If the principles of the doctrine we speak of,
dissolve the efficiency of the said threatenings towards the
end, for the accomplishment whereof they are given, then
they render them unsavoury, useless, and vain : but the prin-
ciples of this doctrine are guilty of this offence : ergo. The
terms of the major proposition are sufficient witness of the
truth thereof; in order to the proof of the minor, we suppose,
first, that the end intended by God in such threatenings, which
threaten those that shall tipostatize with eternal death, is to
prevent apostacy in the saints, and to work or cause them to
persevere. 2. That this is one of the principles of the com-
mon doctrine of perseverance, God hath absolutely promised
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 77
final perseverance unto the saints ; and this another, God
will certainly, infrustrably, and infallibly work this perse-
verance in the saints. These two things only supposed, the
light of the truth of the said minor proposition breaks forth
from between them with much evidence and power: for, first,
If the said threatenings be intended by God for the pre-
vention of the apostacy of the saints, and consequently to
effect their perseverance, the way and manner wherein this
end intended by God is to be effected by them, must needs
be by their ingenerating or raising a fear or apprehension in
the saints of eternal death ; it being the native property of
fear, mixed with hope, to awaken and provoke men to the
use of such means which are proper to prevent the danger or
evil feared ; there is no other way imaginable how or where-
by the threatenings we speak of should operate towards the
perseverance of the saints for the preventing of their apos-
tacy, but that mentioned, viz. by working in them a fear or
dread of the evil threatened. Therefore, secondly. Evident
it is, that such promises made, and made known unto the
saints, by which they are made incapable of any such fear,
are absolutely destructive of the efficiency, which is proper
to the said threatenings, to exhibit towards the prevention
of apostacy in the saints, or for the causing of them to per-
severe. And, lastly. It is every whit as evident, that such
promises, whereby God should assure the saints, that they
shall not apostatize, but persevere, are apt and proper to ren-
der them incapable of all fear of eternal death, and conse-
quently are apparently obstructive of, and destructive unto,
the native tendency of the said threatenings towards and
about the perseverance of the saints. These threatenino-s can
do nothing, contribute nothing, towards the perseverance of
the saints, but by the mediation of the fear of evil in them
upon their non-persevering ; therefore, whatsoever hardens
them against this fear, or renders them incapable of it, super-
sedes all the virtue and vigour which are to be found in
these threatenings, for or towards the effecting of their per-
severance.'
Alls. First, Be it granted, that one end of God in his
threatenings, is to prevent apostacy in the saints, by stirring
them up to take careful heed to the ways and means whereby
they may persevere^ and that they no otherwise work or cause
78 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVEUAXCE
perseverance, but as they so stir up and provoke men to the
things wherein they are to abide; but this is not their only
end. They are also discoveries to all the world of the seve-
rity of God against sin, and that it is his judgment that they
•who commit it are worthy of death.
Secondly, If by absolute promises of final perseverance,
you intend such promises of peiseverance, in and by the use
of means, instituted and appointed by God himself, for the
accomplishment of the end promised, which are not made
or given, upon the consideration of any worth in them to
whom they a^-e made, nor do depend, as to their accomplish-
ment, on any such condition in them as in the event and
issue may not be fulfilled, this observation also is granted.
You may add also, that God will certainly, eftectually, and
infallibly work in them an abiding with him to the end, or
put his law in their hearts, that they shall never depart from
him. If by infrustrably also, you intend only that he will so
work it as that his counsel and purpose shall not in the end
be frustrated or disappointed, we grant that also, for he hath
said 'his counsel shall stand and he will do all his pleasure.'
These things being thus supported, let us try the infer-
ences from them, that must make good the former assertion,
concerning the frustration of the use of comminations by
them, for they are singled out to bear the weight of this
charge.
To the first assumption then and inference I say. There
is a twofold fear of eternal death and destruction. 1. An
anxious perplexing fear, in respect of the end itself. 2. A
watchful careful fear, in respect of the means leading there-
unto. In respect of the first, it is utterly denied, that the
use and end of the threatenings of God, in respect of his
saints, are to ingenerate any such fear in them, it being di-
rectly opposed to that faith, assurance, peace, boldness, con-
solation, and joy, that God is pleased to afford to them, and
abundantly exhorts them to live up unto: yea, an anxious
abiding fear of hell, is fully contrary to that very conditional
assurance of salvation, which Mr. Goodwin himself, in re-
spect of their present condition, allows to them. Nor hath
the Lord instituted his ordinances at such a difference and
opposition one to another, as that, at the same time, towards
the same persons, they should be effectual to beget opposite
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 79
and contrary frames and principles. For the other, or a
watchful heedful fear for the avoiding of the way and means,
that would lead them, and do lead others, to destruction,
that is not in the least inconsistent with any assurance, that
God is pleased by his promises to give to his saints of their
perseverance. God will have them expect their persever-
ance in the way wherein he hath promised it ; that is, by
the use of such and such means, helps, and advantages, as
he hath appointed for the effectual accomplishment thereof.
And therefore nothing is in vain or uselessly applied to
them, which, according to his appointment, is suited to the
stirring of them up to the use of the means ordained for that
end, as before mentioned. Therefore, to Mr. Goodwin's se-
cond assertion, which he calls ' evident ;' I say.
First, That it is not the making, or the bare making known
to the saints of the promises of God, that will work the end
for which they are given to them, or enable them to mix them
with faith ; and according to the strength of that, and not
according to the truth that is in the promises themselves, is
their assurance of the things promised. And therefore, not-
withstanding all the clear promises of perseverance which
are made, and made known to them, we see very many of
them not to come up to any such assurance thereof, as to be
freed from the first sort of fear mentioned ; which yet is the
proper issue of unbelief, to the begetting whereof in them,
God hath not instituted any ordinance.
Secondly, That none of the saints of God are, by the pro-
mises of grace which we assert, freed from that fear which is
the proper product and effect of God's comminations in re-
spect of them; and therefore by them there is no obstruction
laid in the way of the proper efficiency of those threateninos.
What is added, in the third and last place, is only a repetition
of what was before spoken, without any attempt of proof;
unless he would have it looked upon as a conclusion from
the premises, whose weakness being discovered as to the
intent and purpose in hand, we need not farther trouble our-
selves with it. Instead of Mr. Goodwin's, now considered,
take these few observations, which will give so much light
into the whole matter under debate, as may supersede his
whole ensuing discourse.
First then. It may be observed (as it was, by the way, in
80 DOCTRIXE OF THE SAINTS PERSEVERANCE
the foregoing discourse), that notwithstanding the promises
of perseverance which are given to the saints, yet many there
are. who are not enabled all their days to mix them with faith
(although their interest and portion lie in them, no less than
theirs who, through grace, attain the greatest assurance), and
on that account do never all their days get free from some
bondage, by reason of the fear of death and destruction. And
in respect of such as these, the comminations and threaten-
ings insisted on, may have much of that end accomplished
which, by Mr. Goodwin, is assigned to them ; not that such
a frame is directly aimed at in them, Christ dying to deliver
them, who, by reason of death, were in bondage all their days,
from that bondage which the fear of death for sin doth keep
the souls of men in, and under, but that it follows and will
follow upon their darkness and weakness of faith.
Secondly, That the promises of perseverance being of
the effecting and accomplishment of it, by and in the use
of means, do not nor will g-ive deliverance to them to whom
they are made from fear of death and hell, but only whilst
they conscientiously use the means appointed for them to
walk in : so that upon their deflexion from the rule which is
attended v.'ith mercy and peace, the threatenings of God to
sin and sinners, to apostacy and apostates,dolay hold on them
in their full force and efficacy ; especially to the ingenerat-
ing in them a terror of the Lord (as the apostle speaks) and
an abhorrency of their ways, a loathing of them as not good,
that would cause them to fall into the hands of the living
God. So that all Mr. Goodwin's arguings, not being levied
against the certainty of perseverance, but men's certainty
that they shall persevere (which some never attain unto, some
lose either in whole or in part, oftentimes), are not to the
business in hand.
Thirdly, That eternal death and destruction is not the
only subject of God's threatenings, nor all the evil that they
may have a fear of whom he deals withal by them; deser-
tion, rejection, rebukes, sharp and keen arrows, blows of
God's hand, temporal death itself, with the like, are also
threatened; yea, and so oi'ten in an eminent and dreadful
manner, have been inflicted, that though they might be sup-
posed to have always some comfortable assurance of deliver-
ance from the wrath that is to come, yet the threatenings
EXPLAIXED AND COXFIKMF.D. 81
of God may be suited to beget in them this fear of evil to
such a height, as may make their ' bowels to flow like water,
rottenness to enter into their bones, and all their joints to
tremble.'
Fourthly, That the end of the threatenings of God, being
to discover to men the connexion that is, by his appoint-
ment, between the sins exagitated and the punishment
threatened, whence the fear mentioned doth consequently
ensue, they may obtain their full and primary effect, though
that fear be not ingenerated, if they be prevailed on by any
other considerations, so that the sin be avoided.
Fifthly, That when the saints do walk orderly, regularly,
and closely with God, in the use of means by him appoint-
ed, and so doing, from the promises of perseverance, do re-
ceive a comfortable assurance, that they shall be kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation, the begettino-
in them of fears of death and hell, is neither useful in itself,
nor are they intended of God to be their portion. But if at
any time they turn aside from the holy commandment, and
thereby fail of the persuasion of their perseverance (as their
faith will be by such means impaired), though the certainty
of the thing itself be no less infallible than formerly, yet by
the threatenings of God to them it maybe needful, to rouse
them (by the terrors of the Lord in them) from the condition
whereinto they have cast themselves.
I doubt not but that from the light of these and the like
considerations which might farther be insisted on, it will
appear that there may be and is an harmonious consistency
between the promises and threatenings of the Scripture, not-
withstanding the mist that is raised in a long and tedious
discourse to interrupt the evidence thereof.
In the 13th section, under pretence of answering an
objection, a long discourse is drawn forth farther to varnish
over what was before spoken. Nothing of importance to my
best observation being added, it may be reduced to these
four heads :
First, An assertion, 'That the threats against apostacy
do not belong to hypocrites ; that is, to them that are not
really regenerate, let their profession be what it will; for
hypocrites ought not to persevere in the way wherein they
are to the end, and therefore there is no danger of their fall-
VOL. VII. o
82 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVERAXCE
ing away from it.' Which is a ridiculous piece of sophistry;
for though they may not be exhorted to continue in their
hypocrisy which corrupts and vitiates their profession, yet
they may in their profession, which in itself is good. And
though there is no danger of leaving their hypocrisy, yet
there is of their waxing worse and worse, by falling from the
beginnings of grace which they have received, the profes-
sion which they have made, and the regular conversation
which they have entered upon. So that notwithstanding
any thing said to the contrary, the comminations under con-
sideration may principally belong to some kind of profes-
sors, who notwithstanding all their gifts and common graces
which they have received, yet in a large sense may be termed
hypocrites, as they are opposed to them who have received
the Spirit with true and saving grace.
Secondly, He says, ' It is evident that they belong unto
true believers from Heb. vi. 4—6. 9. x. 26, 27. 29.' but if
there were no better evidence of the concernment of true be-
lievers in the threatenings made to apostacy, than what can
be drawn from the places mentioned, I dare undertake that
Mr. Goodwin shall never prove any such concernment of
theirs therein, whilst his eyes are open ; but about this I
shall not at present contend.
Thirdly, He tells us, 'That the end and aim of God in
these threatenings is the good of believers.' Of which as far
as they are concerned in them, I mucii less doubt, than I do
of the clearness of the proof of this assertion, from Psal.
Ixxxv. 8. * I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for he
will speak peace to his people and to his saints, but let them
not turn again to folly.' A place that I presume was
hooked in here violently, for want of a fitter opportunity to
wrest it with a by-interpretation, because it looks so hardly
on the doctrine which our author hath undertaken to defend.
But let this pass also.
His fourth assertion, which he pursues at large, or rather
with many words, is, * That these threatenings have no ten-
dency to the good of believers, but only by begetting in them
a fear of hell and destruction; which that they ought to do,
is strongly proved from Luke xii. 4, 5. where we are bid
to fear him who can cast both body and soul into hell-fire.'
Now though the logic of this argument doth scarce appear
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 83
to me, or the strength of the inference from the text, there
being a great difference between ' fearing him who can cast
both body and soul into hell-fire,' and fearing of hell-fire ;
between fearing God for his severity and power, in opposi-
tion to the weakness and limitedness of persecutors (even
whilst we ' fear not their fears, but sanctify the Lord of
Hosts in our hearts, making him our dread and our fear'),
and such a fear of punishment as is inconsistent with the
promises of God that we shall be preserved in obedience,
and so be free from it. Yet I shall consider the following
discourse that is built thereon. Supposing all that Mr.
Goodwin observes from this text, and that the reason of the
fear here enjoined, is taken from the power of God to cast
into hell, yet the whole of the argument thence amounts but
thus far, because such who are threatened to be persecuted
by men who can only kill their bodies, ought rather to fear
God who can extend his power of punishing to the destruc-
tion of body and soul : of those that offend him, therefore,
there is such a fear ingenerated in the saints by the threaten-
inas of the word, as is inconsistent with the truth of God's
steadfastness in his covenant with them, to keep them up to
obedience unto the end.
Sect, the 14th, he farther pleads from Heb. xi. 7.
2 Kings xxii. 19, 20. * That the eminentest, holiest men that
live may do many things from a principle of fear, or of being
afraid of the judgments of God that they should come upon
them, and upon that account have been put upon ways that
were acceptable to God.'
Am. We know that the ' fear of the Lord is the begin-
ning of wisdom :' and the fear ' of the Lord and his good-
ness,' is a great mercy of the covenant of grace. This is
not the thing here pleaded for : it is a thing quite of another
nature, even that ascribed to the strange nations that were
transplanted into Samaria, by the king of Syria, upon the
captivity and removal of the ten tribes, and frightened by
lions that destroyed some of them, who did yet continue to
worship their own idols, under the dread of God which was
upon them, which is called, ' the fear of the Lord.' To com-
plete this fear it is required that a man have such an appre-
hension of the coming of hell and wrath upon him, as that
he be not relieved against it, by any interposal of promise, or
G 2
84 DOCTRIXE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERAXCE
ought else, from God, that he should be preserved in the way
and path whereby he shall assuredly find deliverance from
that which he fears. How far this kind of fear, the fear of
hell, not as declarative of the terror of the Lord, but as pro-
bable to betide and befal the persons so fearing it, and that
solely considered as an evil to himself, maybe a principle of
any act of acceptable gospel obedience is not cleared by
Mr. Goodwin, nor easily will be so. For,
1 . That it is not the intendment of any divine threatenings
to beget such a fear, in reference to them that believe, hath
been declared.
2. It is no fruit or product of the Spirit of life and love,
which, as hath been shewn, is the principle of all our obedi-
ence and walking with God.
3. It holds out a frame of spirit directly contrary to what
we are called and admitted unto under the gospel ; ' for God
hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love,
and of a sound mind ;' 2 Tim. i. 7. and Rom. viii. 15. ' We
have not received the spirit of bondage unto fear, but the
spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba Father.' The spirit
of this fear and dread, and the bondage that attends it, is at
open variance with the spirit of liberty, boldness, power,
adoption, and a sound mind wherewith believers are endued.
And,
4. It is that which the Lord Christ intended to remove
and take away from his, by his death ; Heb.ii. 15. ' He died
that he might deliver them, who for fear of death were in
bondage all their days.'
This fear then, I say, which is neither promise of the
covenant, nor fruit of the Spirit, nor product of saving faith,
will scarce, upon strict inquiry, be found to be any great fur-
therer of the saints' obedience ; what use the Lord is pleased
to make of this dread and terror in the hearts of any of his,
for the hedging up their ways from folly, and staving them
off from any actual evil when through the strength of temp-
tation they do begin to cast off the law of life and love where-
by they are governed, is not in the least prejudiced by any
thing asserted in the doctrine of the saints' perseverance ;
towards some, who, though they are persuaded of the perse-
verance of the saints indefinitely, yet have no persuasion, or
at least no prevailing cheering assurance that themselves are
EXPLAINED AXD COXFIRMED. 85
saints (which Mr. Goodwin thinks to be the condition of far
the greatest joart of believers) it hath its full power and ex-
tent, its whole efficacy depending on the apprehensions of
the mind wherein it is. Towards the residue, who upon
abiding grounds and sure foundations have obtained a com-
fortable, spiritual persuasion of their own interest in the pro-
mises of God, that the consideration of hell and judgment
as the due debt of sin and necessary vindication of the glory
of God hath also its effects and influence, as far as God is
pleased to exercise them therewith, acquainting them con-
tinually with his terror, and filling them with an abhorrency
of those ways which in and of themselves, tend to so dismal
an end and issue, hath been declared.
Secondly, The places of Scripture mentioned by Mr,
Goodwin doubtless will not reach his intendment. Of Noah
it is said, that he was tuAa/Bac after he was TpavfxaTKj^tlg,
being warned of God of that flood that was for to come upon
the world of ungodly men, and the salvation of himself and
his family by the ark ; being filled with the reverence of
God and assured of his own preservation, he industriously
sets himself about the use of the means, whereby it was to
be accomplished. That because a man assured of an end
from God himself, in and by the use of means, did with a re-
verential fear of God, not of any evil threatened which he
was to be preserved from, set himself to a conscientious use
of means whereby the promised end of God's own institution
is to be brought about ; therefore the fear of hell (such a
fear as hath been described) is one principle of the obedi-
ence of the saints in their walking with God, and such as
they ought to cherish, as being a means appointed of God
for that end and purpose, is an argument of no great value
here with us. Neither surely will the conclusion intended
be more evidently educed, from the tenderness of the heart
of Josiah under the preaching of the law mentioned in the
second place, and therefore I shall not need to call it into
examination.
But it is added farther, sect. 14. p. 314. * The present
state and frame of the hearts and souls of the saints duly
considered, which are made up as well of flesh and corrup-
tion, as of spirit and grace, the former having need of bri-
dles for restraint, as well, as the latter of spurs for quicken-
86 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
ing, evident it is that arguments or motives drawn from fear
of punisliment, are as necessary and proper for them in re-
spect of the one, as incitements from love, in respect of the
other, A whip for the horse (says Solomon), a bridle for the
ass, and a rod for the fool's back. The flesh even in the wisest
of men, is a fool, and would be unruly without a rod ever and
anon shaken over it ; nor should God have made such gra-
cious, bountiful, and effectual provision, for the perseverance
of the saints, as now he hath done, had he not engaged as
well the passion of fear within them, as of love, to be their
guardian keeper. It is true perfect love casteth out fear, but
who amongst the saints themselves can say either that his
heart is clean, or his love perfect ? Perfect love casteth out
flesh, as well as fear ; yea, true love until flesh be cast out
preserveth fear, for its assistant and fellow-helper ; the flesh
would soon make love a wanton, and entice her unto folly, did
not fear dissolve the enchantment and protect her chastity/
Of this last division of the 34th section, there are two parts :
The first confirmative of what was spoken before, concerninp-
the usefulness of the fear of hell and punishment for the fur-
thering of the saints' obedience. The other responsatory to
what is urged. to the contrary from 1 John iv. 18. 'Perfect
love casteth out fear.' For the first, it is granted, that there
are those two contrary principles of flesh and spirit, corrup-
tion and grace, in the hearts of all, even the best and most
eminent saints, whilst they continue here below. But that
these two, should be principles acting themselves in their
obedience, the one moved, incited, and stirred up by love,
the other from the fear whereof we are speaking, is a fleshly,
dark, anti-evangelical conceit. That the principle in believers
which the Scripture calls flesh, and corruption, needs incite-
ment to obedience, or is to be incited thereunto, as is afl^irmed,
is no less corrupt than what was before mentioned . Look, what-
soever influence flesh or corruption hath into any of our obe-
dience, so far that obedience is vitiated, corrupted, rendered
unclean and unacceptable before God. The flesh is to be cru-
cified, slain, destroyed, not stirred up, and provoked to obe-
dience, being indeed disobedience in the abstract? enmity
to God. You may as well persuade darkness to shine, as the
flesh to obey ; it is not a fool (as that allusion bespeaks it
from Prov, xxvi. 3.) that would ever and anon be unruly.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 87
were not a rod shaken over him ; but it is folly itself, that is
not to be cured, but killed, not stirred up, but mortified.
How that is to be done, hath been formerly at large declared:
it is by the Spirit's bringing the cross and power of the death
of Christ into the heart of the sinner, and not by any consi-
deration of hell, and punishment, that we can take upon our-
selves (which never did, nor never will, mortify any sin, to the
end of the world) that this work is to be wrought.
Secondly, That which is added of God's bountiful provi-
sion for the perseverance of the saints by engaging the pas-
sion of fear, as well as love, is of no better a frame or con-
stitution than that which went before. That our gracious
Father had made fuller, larger, and more certain provision for
our perseverance, than any can be afforded by the engaging
of our passions, by consideration of punishment or reward,
I hope, hath been sufficiently demonstrated ; and if Mr.
Goodwin intend no more by his love, and fear of God, than
the engaging of those natural passions in us, by the conside-
rations intimated, I shall not be rival with him in his per-
suasion. The love we intend is a fruit of the Spirit of God in
us, and the fear contended about, of the spirit of bondage :
which though it be not pressed on us as our duty, yet we
hope that bountiful provision is made for our perseverance,
as shall effectually support and preserve us to the end.
Blessed be his name, his saints have many better guardians
and keepers, than a bondage frame of Spirit, upon the ac-
count of the wrath to come, from whence they are delivered by
Christ : they are in his own hand, and in the hand of his Son,
and are ' kept through faith by his power to salvation.' Ifthis
be the end of Mr. Goodwin's preaching the threatenings of
God at any time, viz. that the natural passion of fear, being
stirred up with the apprehensions of hell, the flesh that is in
man, may be incited to obedience, I hope he hath not many
consenting with him in the same intendment.
Thirdly, To an objection framed from 1 John iv. 18.
That 'perfect love casts out fear,' he tells us ; First, 'That it
maybe so, but whose love is perfect.' Secondly, 'That love
cherisheth fear, until the flesh be quite cast out.' Thirdly,
'That the flesh would make love wanton and entice it to folly,
did not fear dissolve the enchantment.' But,
First, Though love be not perfectto all degrees of per-
88 i:)OCIKIXE OF THE SAINTs' PEUSEVEll A X CE
fection here, yet it may have, yea it hath in the saints the
perfection of uprightness and sincerity, which is all that is
here intended, and all that is required to it, for the casting out
of that tornienting fear cf which the apostle speaks. 'Fear,'
saith he, ' liath torment:' and if our love cannot amount
to that perfection, as to cast it out, it being only to be cast out
thereby, it is impossible we should ever be freed from tor-
ment all our days, or be filled with joy and consolation in
btlievino-; which would frustrate the glorious design of God,
which he hath sworn himself willing to pursue, Heb. vi. 13.
and the great end of the death of Christ, which he hath per-
fectly accomplished, Heb. ii. 15.
Secondly, It is true ; there is a fear that love cherisheth;
the fear that God hath promised in the covenant of grace,
to preserve in our hearts all our days ; but to say it che-
risheth the fear we speak of, and which the Holy Ghost in
this place intendeth, is expressly to make the Holy Ghost a
liar, and to contradict him to his face.
Thirdly, What love in us is that, that the flesh can or
may entice to folly? Are the fruits of the Spirit of God,
graces of his own working and creating in us, of such a tem-
per and constitution, as that they may be enticed to unclean-
ness and folly ? And is it possible that such a thought should
enter into the heart of a man, professing the doctrine of the
gospel? That ink should stain paper, with such filth cast
upon the Spirit and grace of God ? The fear of hell erewhile
was suited to the use of the flesh, but now (it seems) it serves
to keep the love of God itself in order, that otherwise would
wax wanton, fleshly, and foolish. Foolish love, that wiil
attempt to cast out this tormenting fear, not being able to
preserve itself from lolly, without its assistance.
Sect. 15. is spent in an answer endeavoured to an ob-
jection, placed in the beginning of it in these words :
* If it be farther demanded. But doth it not argue servility
in men, to be drawn by the iron cord of the fear of hell, to
do what is their duty to do ? Or doth any other service or
obedience become sons and children, but only that which is
free and proceedeth from love?'
Hereunto you have a threefold answer returned.
First, ' That Ciod requires that it should be so ;' which is a
downright begging of the question.
EXPLAINED AND COXFIRMED. 89
Secondly, He puts a difference between the obedience of
children to their parents, and of the saints unto God; the
discourse whereof discovering some mysteries of the new
doctrine of grace, much pressed and insisted on, take as fol-
lows. 'There is a very different consideration of the obedi-
ence of children to their natural parents, and of the obe-
dience of the children of God unto their heavenly Father;
the obedience of the former, is but by the inspiration of na-
ture, and is an act not so much raised by deliberation, or
flowing from the will, by an interposure of judgment and
conscience to produce the election, as arising from an in-
nate propension in men, accompanying the very constituting
principles of their nature and being; whereas the latter, the
obedience of the children of God, is taught by precepts: and
the principle of it, I mean tliat rational frame of heart, out
of which they subject themselves to God, is planted in the
souls of men by the engagement of reason, judgment, and
conscience, to consider those grounds, arguments, and mo-
tives, by which their heavenly Father judgeth it meet to
work and fashion them unto such a frame ; so that, though
the obedience of natural children to their natural parents,
be the more genuine and commendable, when it flows freely
from the pure instinct of nature, and is not drawn from them
by fear of punishment, yet the obedience of the children of
God is then most genuine and commendable, and like unto
itself when it is produced and raised in the soul, by a joint
influence and contribution, not of one or of some but of all
those arguments, reasons, motives, inducements whatever,
and how many soever they be, by which their heavenly Fa-
ther useth to plant and work it in them ; for in this case and
in this only, it hath most of God, of the Spirit of God, of the
wisdom of God, of the goodness of God : in and upon this
account it is likeliest to be most free, uniform, and perma-
nent.'
The sum of this answer amounts to these three things :
First, That there is an instinct or inspiration of nature in
children to yield obedience to their parents.
Secondly, That there is no such spiritual instinct or in-
clination in the saints to yield obedience to God.
Thirdly, That the obedience of the saints ariseth merely
and solely from such considerations of the reason of that obe-
90 DOCTRIXE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
dience, which they apprehend in contradiction to any such
genuine principles as might incline their hearts thereunto.
For the first. That the obedience of children to their pa-
rents, though it be a prime dictate of the law of nature where-
with they are endued, proceedeth from a pure instinct, any
otherwise than as a principle suiting and inclining them to
the acts of that obedience, so as to exclude the promoting
and carrying of it on, upon the moral consideration of duty,
piety, &,c. it is in vain for Mr, Goodwin to go about to per-
suade us, unless he could not only corrode the word of God
where it presseth that obedience as a duty, but also charm
us into beasts of the field, which are acted by such a brute
instinct, not to be improved, stirred up, or drawn forth into
exercise by deliberation or consideration. There is, it is true,
in children an impress of the power of the law of nature, suit-
ing them to obedience (which yet in many hath been quite
cast out and obliterated, being not of the constituting prin-
ciples of their nature, which whilst they have their being as
such, cannot be thrown out of them), and carrying them out
unto it with delight, ease, and complacency (as habits do
to suitable actings), but withal that this principle is not regu-
lated and directed as our obedience to God by a rule, and
stirred up to exert itself, and they in whom it is, provoked
by rational and conscientious considerations, to the perform-
ance of their duty in that obedience, is so contrary to the
experience, I suppose, of all sharers wdth us in our mortality,
that it will hardly be admitted into debate. But,
Secondly, The worst part of this story lies in the mid-
dle of it, in the exclusion of any such spiritual principle in
believers, as should carry them out unto obedience, at least
to any such as is not begotten in their minds by rational
considerations ; whatever may be granted of acquired ha-
bits of grace (which, that the first should be, that a spiri-
tual habit should be acquired by natural actings, is a most
ridiculous fiction), all infused habits of grace that should
imprint upon the soul a new natural inclination to obedi-
ence, that should fashion and frame the hearts of men into
a state and condition suited for, and carry them out unto,
spiritual obedience, are here decried. All it seems that the
Scripture hath told us of our utter insufficiency, deadness,
disability, indisposedness to anything that is good, without
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 91
a new life and principle, all that we have apprehended and
believed concerning the 'new heart and Spirit given us, the
new nature, new creature, divine nature, inward man, grace
in the heart, making the root good that the fruit may be so ;'
all that the saints have expressed concerning their delight
in God, love to God upon the account of his writing his
laws in their hearts and spirits, is a mere delusion. There
is no principle of any heavenly, spiritual life, no new na-
ture with its bent and instinct lying towards God and obe-
dience to him, wrought in the saints, or bestowed on them
by the Holy Spirit of grace. If this be so we may even fairly
shut our Bibles, and go learn this new gospel of such as
are able to instruct us therein : wherefore I say.
Thirdly, That as in children there is an instinct, an in-
clination of nature, to induce them and carry them out to
obedience to their natural parents, which yet is directed,
regulated, provoked, and stirred up, and they thereby, to
that obedience, by motives and considerations suited to
work upon their minds and consciences, to prevail with them
thereunto ; so also in believers, the children of God who are
'begotten of the will of God,' of the 'word of truth,' and
born again, not of the will of the flesh but of'the will of God,'
there is a new spiritual principle, a constituting principle
of their spiritual lives wrought and implanted in them by
the Spirit of God; a principle of faith, love, enabling them
for, suiting them unto, and inciting them to, that obedience
which is acceptable and well-pleasing to their Father which
is in heaven ; in which obedience, as they are regulated by
the word, so they are stirred up unto it by all those motives,
which the Lord in his infinite wisdom hath fitted to prevail
on persons endued with such a principle from himself, as
they are. It is not incumbent on me to enter upon the proof
and demonstration of a title to a truth, which the saints of
God have held so long in unquestionable possession, no-
thing at all being brought to invalidate it, but only a bare
insinuation that it is not so. Then,
Fourthly, I deny not but that the saints of God are
stirred up to obedience, by all the considerations and in-
ducements which God lays before them and proposeth to
them, for that end and purpose ; and as he hath spread a
principle of obedience over their whole souls, all their fa-
92 DOCTRIXK OF TIIF, SAIXTs" rKRSEVEUAXCE
culties and affections, so he hath provided in his word, mo-
tives and inducements to the obedience he requires, which
are suited unto, and fit to work upon, all that is within them
(as the prophet speaks), to live to him ; their love, fear,
hope, desires, are all managed within, and provoked with-
out to that end and purpose. But how it will thence follow,
that it is the intendment of God by his threatenings, to in-
generate such a fear of hell in them, as is inconsistent with
an assurance of his faithfulness in his promises not to leave
them, but to preserve them to his heavenly kingdom, I pro-
fess I know not. The obedience of the saints, we look upon
to proceed from a principle wrought in them with a higher
energy and efficacy, than mere desires of God to implant it
by arguments and motives ; that is, by persuading them to
it, without the least real contribution of strength or power,
or the ingrafting the word in them, in, with, and by, a new
principle of life ; and if this be the Phyllis of our author's
doctrine, solus haheto. Such a working of obedience, we
cannot think to have any thing of God, of the Spirit of God,
of the wisdom of God, or the goodness of God, in it, being
exceedingly remote from the way and manner of God's work-
ing in the saints, as held out in the word of truth, and inef-
fectual to the end proposed, in that condition wherein they
are. The true use of the threatenings of wrath in refer-
ence to them who by Christ are delivered from it, hath been
before manifested and insisted on.
In the last division of this section, he labours to prove
that what is done from a principle of fear may be done will-
ingly and cheerfully, as well as that which is done from a
principle of love. To which briefly I say,
First, Neither fear nor love as they are mere natural af-
fections, are any jirinciple of spiritual obedience as such.
Secondly, That we are so far from denying the usefulness
of the fear of the Lord to the obedience of the saints ; that
the continuance thereof in them to the end, is the great
promise, for the certain accomplishment whereof we do
contend.
Thirdly, That fear of hell in believers, as a part of the
wrath of God, from which tliey are delivered by Christ, be-
ing oj)posed to all their grace of faith, love, hope, &c. is no
principle of obedience in them, whatever influence it may
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 93
have on them as to restraint when managed by the hand of
God's grace.
Fourthly, That yet believers can never be delivered from
it but by faith in the blood of Christ, attended with sincere
and upright walking with God ; which when they fail of,
though that fear supposed to be predominant in the soul,
be inconsistent with any comfortable cheering assurance of
the favour of God, yet it is not with the certain continuance
to them of the thing itself, upon the account of the pro-
mises of God.
Section the sixteenth contains a large discourse in an-
swer to the apostle, affirming that fear hath torment, which
is denied by our author upon sundry considerations ; the
fear he intends is a fear of hell, and wrath to come ; this he
supposeth to be of such predominancy in the soul, as to be
a principle of obedience unto God ; that this can be with-
out torment, disquiet, bondage, and vexation, he will not
easily evince to the consciences of them, who have at any
time been exercised under such a frame ; what fear is con-
sistent with hope, what incursions upon the souls of the
saints are made by dread and bondage, the fear of hell, and
the use of such fears, how some are, though true believers,
scarcely delivered from such fears, all their days, I have
formerly declared ; and that may suffice as to all our con-
cernment in this discourse.
In the seventeenth section, somewhat is attempted as to
promises, answerable to what hath been done concerning
exhortations and threatenings. The words used to this end
are many ; the sum is, that the use of promises in stirring
men up to obedience, is solely in the proposal of a good
thing, or good things to them to whom the promises are
made, which they may attain, or come short of. Now if
men are assured, as this doctrine supposeth they may be,
that they shall attain the end, whether they use the means
or no, how can they possibly be incited by the promises to
the use of means proposed for the enjoyment of the end pro-
mised: that this is the substance of his discourse, I pre-
sume himself will confess, and it being the winding up of a
tedious argument, I shall briefly manifest its usefulness, and
lay it aside. I say then.
First, What is the true use of the promises of God, and
94 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVERANCE
what influence they have into the obedience and holiness of
the saints, hath been formerly declared. Neither is any
thing there asserted, of their genuine and natural tendency
to the ends expressed, enervated in the least by any thing
here insisted on, or intimated by Mr. Goodwin ; so that
without more trouble 1 might refer the reader thither to
evince the falseness of Mr. Goodwin's assertions, concerning
the uselessness of the promises unto perseverance, upon a
supposition that there are promises of perseverance.
Secondly, Though we affirm that all true saints shall per-
severe, yet we do not say, that all that are so, do know them-
selves to be so ; and towards them at least the promises may
have their efficacy in that way, which Mr. Goodwin hath by
his authority confined them to work in.
Thirdly, We say that our Saviour was fully persuaded,
that in the issue of his undertakings and sufferings, he should
be * glorified with his Father,' according to his promise : and
yet upon the account of that glory which he was so assured
of, being set before him, he addressed himself to the sharpest
and most difficult passage to it, that ever any one ente"red on ;
* He endured the cross, despised the shame, for the glory's
sake,' whereof he had assurance; Heb. xii. And why may
not this be the state of them to whom in his so doing he was
a captain of salvation ? Why may not the glory and reward
set before them, though enjoyed in a full assurance of faith,
in the excellency of it, when possessed, as promised, stir
them up to the means leading thereunto.
Fourthly, The truth is, the more we are assured with the
assurance of faith (not of presumption), that we shall certainly
obtain and enjoy the end whereunto the means we use do
lead (as is the assurance that ariseth from the promises of
God), the more eminently are we pressed in a gospel way, if
we walk in the spirit of the gospel, to give up ourselves to
obedience to that God and Father, who hath appointed so
precious and lovely means, as are the paths of grace, for the
obtaining of so glorious an end as that whereunto we are
appointed. And thus I doubt not but that it is manifest, by
these considerations of Mr. Goodwin's objections to the con-
trary, that the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, as
by us taught and delivered, doth not only fall in a sweet
compliance with all the means of grace, especially those ap-
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 95
pointed by God to establish the saints in faith and obedience,
that is, to work perseverance in them, but also to be emi-
nently useful to give life, vigour, power, and efficacy, in a
peculiar gospel manner, to all exhortations, threatenings,
and promises appointed and applied by God, to that end and
purpose.
CHAP. XIII.
The maintainers and propagators of the several doctrines under contest,
taken into consideratiori. The necessity of so doing from Mr. G. under-
taking to make the comparison. This inquiry confined to those of our
own nation. The chief assertors of this doctrine of the saints' perseverance
in this nation since it received any opposition, what was their ministry
and what their lives, 3Tr, G,'s plea in this case. The first objection
against his doctrine by him proposed, second, and third. His answers to
these objections considered: removed. His oivn ivord and testimony of-
fered against the experience of thousands. The persons pointed to by him,
and commended, considered. The principles of those persons he opposeth,
vindicated. Of the doctrine oj' the primitive Christians, as to this head of
religion. Grounds of mistake in reference to their judgments. The first
reformers constant to themselves in their doctrine of the saints' persever-
ance. Of the influence of Mr. Perkins's judgment on the propagation of
the doctrine of the saints' perseverance. Who the persons were on whom
his judgment is supposed to have such an infuence. The consent of foreign
churches making void this surmise. What influence the doctrine of the
saints' perseverance had into the holiness of its prvj'essors. Of the un-
worthiness of the persons who in this nation have asserted the doctrine of
apostacy: the suitableness oj' this doctrine to their practices. Mr. G.'s
attempt to take off this charge. How far men's doctrines may be judged
by their lives. Mr. G.'s reasons ichy episcopalists arminianised, the first.
Considered and disproved. His discord, S)C. General apostacy of men
entertaining the A rminian tenets. The close.
As to the matter in hand, about the usefulness of the doc-
trine of the perseverance of the saints, in and unto the mi-
nistry of the gospel, and the obstruction pretended to be
laid unto it thereby, it may be somewhat conducing and of
concernment to consider who the persons are and were, and
what hath been and is the presence of God with them, in
their ministry who have been assertors and zealous main-
tainers of this doctrine : and withal who they were, and what
they have been in their ministry, and the dispensation of the
word committed unto them, who have risen up in opposition
96 DOCTRIXE OV THK SAI.NTS' PERSE VEllAXC PJ
thereunto ; how also those different parties have approved
their profession to the world, and acquitted themselves in
their generation in their walking with God, may be worth
our consideration. Doubtless, if the doctrine, whose decla-
ration and defence we have thus far engaged in, be of such
a pernicious tendency, as is pretended, so destructive to
gospel obedience, and so evidently rendering that great or-
dinance of the ministry useless, it may be traced to its pro-
duct of these effects, in some measure, in the lives, conver-
sations and ministry of those, who have most zealously es-
poused it, most earnestly contended for it, and been most
given up to the form and mould thereof. It were a thing
every way miraculous if any root should for the most part
bring forth fruits disagreeing to the nature of it.
A task this is (I confess), which, were we not necessitated
unto, I covild easily dispense with myself from engaging
therein. But, Mr. Goodwin having voluntarily entered the
list, as to this particular, and instated a comparison between
the abettors of the several doctrines under contest, chap. 9.
of his book (a matter we should not have expected from any
other man), it could not but be thought a gross neglect of
duty, and high ingratitude, towards those great and blessed
souls, who in former and latter days, with indefatigable pains
and eminent success watered the vineyard of the Lord, with
the dew of this doctrine, to decline the consideration of the
comparison made, and dressed up to our hand. jVow be-
cause it is a peculiar task allotted to us, to manifest the em-
bracement of this truth, by those who in the primitive church,
were of greatest note and eminency for piety, judgment,
and skill, in dividing the word aright with ; the professed
opposition made unto it, by such, as those with whom they
lived, and succeeding ages, have branded for men unsound
in the faith, and leaving the good old paths, wherein the
saints of old found peace to their souls : as also to manifest
the receiving and propagation of it, by all (not any one of
name excepted) those great and famous persons whom the
Lord was pleased to employ in the reformation of his church,
walking in this, as in sundry other particulars, closer up to
the truth of the gospel, than some of their brethren, that at
the same time fell off from that church, which was long be-
fore fallen off from the truth, I shall in my present inquiry.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 97
confine myself to those of our own nation, who have been
of renown in their generation for their labour in the Lord,
and of name among the saints for their work in the service
of the gospel.
For the one half of that small space of time, which is
passed since the breaking forth of the light of the gospel in
this nation, we are disenabled from pursuing the comparison
instituted : the one part being not to be considered, or at
least not being; considerable. The time when first head was
made against the truth we profess, and criminations like those
managed by Mr. Goodwin hatched and contrived to assault
it withal, was, when it had been eminently delivered to the
saints of this nation, and all the churches of Christ, by Rey-
nolds, Whitakers, Greenhara, and others like to them, their
fellow-labourers in the Lord's vineyard. The poor weak
worms of this present generation, who embrace the same
doctrine with these men of name, are thought to be free
(some of them at least) from being destroyed by the poison-
ous and pernicious embracing of it, by their own weakness
and disability to discern the natural genuine consequences
and tendency, in the progress of that, which in the root and
foundation they embrace. Their ignorance of their own doc-
trine in its compass and extent, is the mother of that devo-
tion, which in them is nourished thereby. So our great
masters tell us, against whose kingly authority in these
things there is no rising up. For the persons formerly
named, the like relief cannot be supposed. He that shall
provide an apology for them, affirming that they understood
not the state, nature, consequences, and tendencies of the
doctrines they received, defended, preached, contended for,
will scarce be able by any following defensative, to vindi-
cate his own credit for so doing. In the lives, then, and the
ministry of those men, and such as those, if any where, are the
fruits of this doctrine to be seen. If it corrupted not their
lives, nor weakened their ministry ; if it turned not them aside
from the paths of gospel obedience, nor weakened their hands
in the dispensation of the word, in the promises, threatenings,
and exhortations thereof, to the conversion of souls and
building up of those who by their ministry were called, in
their most holy faith, it cannot but be a strong presumption
that there is no such venomous infectious quality in this
VOL. vii. H
98 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS PERSEVERANCE
doctrine, as of late some chemical divines pretend them-
selves to be able to extract out of it. Now, what I pray,
were these men? What were their lives? What was their
ministry? All those who now oppose Mr. Goodwin's doc-
trine, do it either out of ignorance, or to comply with great-
ness, and men in authority, thereby to make up themselves
in their ambitious and worldly aims, and to prevail them-
selves upon the opinion of men : for what cause else in the
world can be imagined why they should so engage? What
though they really believed the whole fabric of his doctrine
wherein he hath departed from the faith he once (as they
say) professed to be a lie ; a lie of dangerous and pernicious
consequence to the souls of men, a lie derogatory to the
glory of God, the efficacy of grace, the merit of the death
of Christ, and the honour of the gospel, and full of discon-
solation to poor souls, being in and under temptation. What
though they suppose it secretly to undermine the main funda-
mentals of the covenant of grace, and covertly to substitute
another covenant in the room thereof? What though they
have observed that the doctrine they have received, was em-
braced, preached, prized, by all those great and blessed
souls, which, in the last generation, God magnified with the
conversion of so many thousands in this nation, given into
their ministry, whilst they spent their days under continual
afflictions and persecutions? What though they have the
general known consent of all the reformed churches beyond
the seas with them, in their zeal for the doctrine under con-
sideration? What though, under these and the like appre-
hensions, they profess in the presence of God, his holy
angels and men, that the eternal interest of the precious
souls of men, is more valuable to them ten thousand times
than their own lives, and that that is the sole reason of their
opposition to Mr. G. in his attempts against the doctrine
they have so received and embraced, yet it is meet for us to
judge, and for all 'to whom evil surmises are not esteemed
to be among the works of the flesh,' that all their opposition,
is nothing but a compliance with and pursuit of those worldly,
low, and wretched aims, that they are filled withal. But as
to those persons before-mentioned, what shall we say? Their
piety, literature, zeal, diligence, industry, labour with suc-
cess in the work of the ministry (and that under manifold
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 99
discouragements), are so renowned in the world, that how or
wherewith they shall be shifted off, from being considerable
in their testimony, I cannot imagine. If ever persons in
these latter ages had written upon their breasts, ' Holiness to
the Lord,' if ever any bare about, a ' conformity to the death
and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ ;' they may put in
for an eminent esteem and name among them ; and will
doubtless be found at last to be of the thirty, if they attain
not to the first rank of tRe worthies of Christ, in these ends
of the world. How is it that they were not retarded, in the
course of their gospel obedience, by their entertainment of
this wretched doctrine of the saints' perseverance ? But
what though they kept themselves personally from the pol-
lution of it, yet possibly their ministry was defiled and ren-
dered useless by it. And who, 1 pray, is it, that in this ge-
neration can so support himself with success in the ministry,
as to rise up with this accusation against them? Many
thousands who were their crown, their glory, and rejoicing
in Christ, are fallen asleep, and some continue to this day.
Of the reasons given by Mr. Goodwin why all the zealous,
fruitful preachers, of former days, embraced this doctrine,
we shall instantly undertake the consideration. In the mean
time this seems strange, that God should magnify and make
famous the ministry of so many, throughout the world, and
give in that visible blessing to their labours therein, which
hath filled this island with such an increase of children to
Sion, as that she hath not lengthened the cords of her taber-
nacle, to such an extent and compass, in any proportionable
spot of earth under heaven, if any one eminent part of their
doctrine, and that whereon they laid great weight in their
ministry, which they pressed with as much fervency and con-
tention of spirit as any head of the like importance, should
indeed be so apparently destructive of holiness, and of such
a direct and irresistible efficiency to render useless that great
ordinance of the ministry committed to them, as this is cla-
moured to be. What will be the success of them, in their
ministry, who shall undertake to deny and oppose it, I hope
the people of God in this nation, will not have many
instances to judge by. The best conjecture we can for
the present make of what will be hereafter, must be taken
from what hath already come to pass ; and the best guess of
H 2
100 UOCTKIXE OF THE SAlXTs' PERSKVKUA \ CE
v\hat events will be, is to be raised from the consideration
of what iK'.th been ; from a like disposition of causes, to an
answerableness of events.
A^'hat Mr. Goodwin hath to plead in this case he insists
on, chap. 9. sect. 24—27. pp. 167—172. The sum and aim
of his discourse, is, to apologise for his doctrine against
sundry objections, which in the observations of men it is
liable and obnoxious unto. Now tiiese are such as whatever
the issue of their consideration prove, doubtless it can be
of no advantage unto his cause, that his doctrine is so readily
exposed to them.
The first of these is, that the doctrine he opposeth, and
in opposition whereunto that is set up, which he so indus-
triously asserts, hath generally been received and embraced
by men eminent in piety and godliness, famous on that ac-
count in their generations, with the generality of the people
of God with them. And this is attended with that which
naturally ensues thereon, viz. The scandalousness of the
most of them (yea, of them all of this nation is it spoken),
who have formerly asserted the doctrine which Mr. Goodwin
hath lately espoused. Whereunto, in the third place, an ob-
servation is subjoined, of the ' ordinary defection of men to
loose and unsavoury practices, after they have once drank in
the principles of that opinion, which he now so industri-
ously mixeth and tempereth for thi in.' It is usually said
there is no smoke, but where there is some fire; it would be
strange if such observations as these, should be readily and
generally made by men, concerning the doctrine under con-
test, unless there were some evident occasion administered
by it thereunto. And I must needs say, that if they prove
true, and hold under examination, they will become as
urging a prejudice, as can lightly be laid against any cause
in religion whatsoever. The gospel being a doctrine ac-
cording unto godliness, several persuasions pretending to
be parts and portions thereof, if one shall be foun;! to be
the constant faith and profession of those, who also have
the life and power of godliness in them; the other to be
maintained by evil men and seducers, who, upon their re-
ceiving it, do also wax worse and Vvorse; it is no small ad-
vantage to the first, in its plea for admittance to the right
sind title of a truth of the gospel.
EXPLAINED AXD XOXFIRMED. 101
To evade this charge Mr. Goodwin premises this in
general.
'The experience asserted in the objection, is not so un-
questio'.iable in point of truth, but that if the asserters were
put home upon the proof, they would, I fear (doubtless he
rather hopes it), accoinit, more in presumption than in rea-
sonableness of argument. For if persons of the one judg-
ment and of the other, were duly compared together, I verilv
believe there would be found every whit as full a proportion
of men, truly conscientious and religious, amongst those
whose judgments stand, and have stood for a possibility of
falling away, as on the other side : but through a foolish and
unsavoury kind of partiality, we are rpt, on all hands, ac-
cording to the proverb, to account our own geese for swans,
and other men's swans geese. Certain I am, that if the writ-
ings of men of the one judgment and of the other, be com-
pared together, and an estimate made from thence of the
religion, worth, and holiness of the authors respectively,
those who oppose the common doctrine of perseverance, do
accoinit it no robbery to make themselves every way equal
in this honour with their opposers. The truth is, if it be
lawful for me to utter what I really apprehend, and judge in
the case, I do not find that spirit of holiness, to breathe with
that authority, height, or excellency of power, in the writings
of the latter, which I am very sensible of in the writings of
the former. These call for righteousness, holiness, and all
manner of Christian conversation, with every whit as high
a hand as the other, and add nothing to check, obstruct, or
enfeeble the authority of their demands in this kind ; when
as the other, though they be sore many times in their exhor-
tations and conjurements unto holiness ; yet other while
render both these and themselves in them contemptible, by
avouching such principles, which cut the very sinews and
strength of such their exhortations, and fully balance all
the weight of those motives, by which they seek to bind
them upon the consciences of men. And for men truly holy
and conscientious, doubtless the primitive Christians for
three hundred years together and upwards, next after the
times of the apostles, will fidly balance with an a]>undant
snr|>lusage, both for numbers and truth of godliness, all
those in the reformed churches; who since Calvin's days.
102 DOCTRIXE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVERANCE
have adhered to the common doctrine of perseverance. And
that the churches of Christ more generally during the said
space of three hundred years and more, held a possibility of
a total and final defection, even in true and sound believers,
is so clear from the records yet extant of those times, that
it cannot be denied.'
Aiis. To let pass Mr. Goodwin's proverb, with its appli-
cation (it being very facile to return it to its author, there
being nothing in the world by him proposed to induce us to
such an estimation of his associates, in the work of teach-
ing the doctrine of the saints' apostacy, and their labours
therein, or any other undertaking of theirs, as he labours to
beget, in gilding over their worth and writings, but only
his ow^n judgment and an overweening of their geese for
swans), let us see what is offered by him to evince the ex-
perience asserted, not to be so unquestionable as is pretend-
ed. He offers, first, his own affirmation, ' That if an estimate
may be made of men's worth and holiness by their writings,
those who oppose the doctrine of the saints' perseverance,
will be found, in the promotion of holiness and practice of
it, to outgo their adversaries.' ' Their writings.' he tells us,
'breathe forth a spirit of holiness, such as he cannot find in
the writings of others.' But, first, for this you have only Mr.
Goodwin's naked single testimony; and that, opposed to
the common experience of the people of God. What weight
this is like to bear with men, the event will shew. It is a
l)ard thing for one man, upon his bare word, to undertake to
persuade a multitude, that what their eyes see, and their
ears hear, is not so; Mr. Goodwin had need have Pythago-
rean disciples for the embracing of these dictates of his. The
experience of thousands is placed to confirm the observa-
tion insisted on : saith Mr. Goodwin, * It is not so, they are
in my judgment all deceived.' But,
Secondly, Who are they in whose writings Mr. Goodwin
hath found such a spirit of holiness, ' breathino- with autho-
rity, as is not to be found out, nor perceived, in the writings
of them, that assert the doctrine of the perseverance of the
saints?' Calvin, Zanchius, Beza, &c. and (to confine our- _
selves to home) Reynolds, Whitaker, Perkins, Greenham,
Dodd, Preston, Boulton, Sibbs, Rogers, Culverwell, Cot-
ton, 8cc. (whose fame, upon this very account, of the eminent
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 103
and effectual breathing of a spirit of holiness in their writ-
ings, is gone out into all the nations about us, and their re-
membrance is blessed at home and abroad), are some of the
men who have, as hath been shewed, laboured in watering the
vineyard of the Lord, with the dew and rain of this doctrine.
Who, or where, are they who have excelled them in this un-
dertaking? Let the men be named, and the writings pro-
duced, that Mr, Goodwin may have some joined with him,
in a search after, and judgment of, that spirit that breathes
so excellently in them, that we be not forced to take his tes-
timony of we know not what nor whom. Those amongst our-
selves of chiefest name, who have appeared in the cause that
Mr. Goodwin hath now undertaken, are Tompson, Monta-
gue, &c. with an obscure rabble of that generation. I shall
easily allow Mr. Goodwin to be a man more sharp-sighted
than the most of those with whom he hath to do, in this pre-
sent contest; as also to have his senses more exercised, in
the writings of those eminent persons last named. But yet
that he is sensible of such a spirit of holiness, breathing in
their writings (which for the most part are stuffed with cruel
scoffings at the professors of it, and horrible contempt of all
clftse walking with God), I cannot easily and readily believe ;
should he add to them Arminius, with all that followed him,
in the Low Countries, their most learned Corvinus, drunk
and sober ; as also such among the Papists and Lutherans
as are his companions in this work, and swell them all with
the rhetoric of his commendations until they break, I dare
say he will never be able, before indifferent judges, to make
out his assertion of the excellency of their writings, for the
furtherance of holiness, compared with the labours of those
great and holy souls, who have, both among ourselves and
abroad, laboured in the work I am at present engaged in.
The world of men professing the reformed religion have long
since in their judgments determined this difference, nor doth
it deserve any farther debate.
Secondly, * That those who maintain that perseverance
of the saints, are sore indeed in their exhortations to holi-
ness, but contemptible in their principles upon which they
should build those exhortations,' is an insinuation that Mr.
Goodwin sometimes makes use of, handsomely to beg the
thing in question, when he despairs to cai'ry it by any con-
104 DOCTRINE OF THE SAlXTs' PERSEVERANCE
vincing argument in a fair dispute. That the principles of
this doctrine are eminently serviceable to the furtherance
and promotion of holiness, hath been formerly evinced be-
yond all possibility of contradiction from them, who in any
measure understand what true godliness is, and wherein it
doth consist. Neither ought Mr. Goodwin, if he would be
esteemed as a man disputing for his persuasion, so often to
beg the thing in question: knowing full well that he hath
not so deserved of them with whom he hath to do, as to
obtain any thing of this nature, on those terms, at their
hands.
Thirdly, What was the judgment of the primitive Chris-
tians, as in others, so in and about tliis head of Christian
religion, is best known from that rule of doctrine, which it
is confessed they attended unto, being delivered unto them ;
and in the defence whereof, and to give testimony whereto,
so many thousands of them 'loved not their lives unto death.'
Of those that committed over to posterity any thing of their
thoughts in that space of time limited by Mr. Goodwin (viz.
three hundred years), he names but two; of whom I shall
not say, that if they failed in their apprehensions of the truth
in this matter, it is not the only thing wherein they so failed :
and yet that it can be evident in the least, that they were
consenting in judgment with IVIr. Goodwin, wherewith from
us he differs, is absolutely denied. This elsewhere is already
farther considered. It is a common observation, and not
destitute of a great evidence of truth, that the liberty of ex-
pression which is used by men in the delivery of any doc-
trine, especially if it be done obiter^ by the way, before some
opposition hath been framed and stated thereunto, hath given
advantage to those following of them (when death hath pre-
vented all possibility for them to explain themselves, and
their own thoughts) to draw them into a participation with
them, in that which their souls abhorred. The plea of Arius
and his associates, concerning the judgment of the doctors
of the church, in the days before him, about the great article
of our faith, the Deity of Christ, is known. That there are
in many of the ancients, sundry expressions seemingly va-
rying from that doctrine we assert, upon the account of their
different apprehensions of the terms of faith, being 'regene-
rated,' * holiness,' and the like (which are all of them still with
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 105
US, as in the Scripture, of various significdtions, and not
clearly expressive of any one sense intended by them, until
distinguished), is not denied. Speaking of all those who had
been baptized, and made profession of their faith as believ-
ers, it is no wonder if they granted that some believers might
fall away. But yet in the mean time the most eminent of
them constantly affirmed, that there is a sort of believers,
who, upon the matter with thern, were the only true and real
believers (being such as we formerly described) tliat could
not fall either totally or finally ; but as for this, I hope full
satisfaction is tendered the learned reader in the preface of
this discourse. So that these exceptions notwithstanding,
the prejudices that Mr. Goodwin's doctrine labours under,
from the opposition made to it, and against it, in the defence
of that which it riseth up to overthrow, by that generation
of the saints of God, lies upon the shoulders thereof, as a
burden too heavy for it to bear.
Secondly, Mr. Goodwin farther proceeds, sect. 27. to
inform us of some other mistakes in the instance given, to
make good the former observation. For as for Calvin, Mus-
culus. Martyr, Bucer, with the ministers of this nation, who,
in the last generation, so zealously opposed the persecutions
and innovations of some returning with speed and violence
to Rome, he tells us 'they weie very far from having their
judgments settled, as to the doctrine under contest, so as
resolvedly to have embraced the one, and rejected the other.'
I should willingly walk in the high way for the manifes-
tation and clear eviction of the untruth of this suorp-estion •
viz. by producing their testimonies in abundant plentiful
manner, to confirm their clearness and resolution in the truth
we profess, with their zealous endeavours for the establish-
ment, confirmation, and propagation of it, but that some i'ew
considerations delivered me from engaging in so facile a task.
For,
First, I am not able to persuade myself, that any man
who ever read the writings of the first sort of men mentioned,
and knows the constant doctrine, to this day, of the churches
which they planted and watered, or ever did hear of the lat-
ter, will entertain this assertion of Mr. Goodwin's with any
thing but admir-cition upon what grounds he should make
it. And,
106 DOCTllIXE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVERANCE
Secondly, Himself discovering in part on what account
he doth it, namely, because of their exhortations to watch-
fulness, carefulness, and close walking with God, with their
denunciations of threatenings to them that abide not in the
faith, which he fancies to be inconsistent with the doctrine
of perseverance, so as by him opposed (which inconsistency
we have long since fully manifested to be the issue and off-
spring of his own imagination, begotten of it by the cunning
sophistry of his Pelagian friends), I know not why I should
farther insist upon the wiping away of this reproach, cast
upon those blessed souls whom God so magnified in the
work of the gospel of his Son in their generation. I remem-
ber Navaret, a Dominican friar, upon his observation of the
subtilties of the Jesuits, to wrest many sayings of the an-
cients in favour of their opinions, in those doctrines where-
in those two orders are at variance, affirms, ' that he was afraid
that when he was dead, although he had written and dis-
puted so much against them, they would produce him for a
testimony and witness on their side.' What he feared con-
cerning himself, Mr. Goodwin hath attempted, concerning
many more worthy persons : cutting off sentences from what
goes before, and follows after, restraining general expres-
sions, imposing his own hypothesis on his reader, in making
applicationof what he quotes out of any author, he hath spent
one whole chapter to persuade the world, that men of as great
abilities and judgments as any in the world since the apo-
stles fell asleep, have usually expressed themselves in a direct
contradiction, to what they are eminently and notoriously
known, as their professed deliberate judgments, to have main-
tained.
Secondly, He farther informs us, how this doctrine of
the perseverance of the saints, came to be so generally en-
tertained by the godly, zealous, and able ministers of this
nation, that when we see how they fell into it, their testi-
mony given thereto, may be of less validity with us.
'This,' he telleth you, 'was the permission of Mr. Per-
kins's judgment, to be overruled by the texts of Scripture
commonly insisted on for the proof of this doctrine : the
great worth of the person commended therefore the worth
of the opinion, and he verily believeth, as men were then
induced to receive this ojjinion, so, to a relinquishment of
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 107
it, they want nothing but the countenance and authority of
some person of popular acceptance to go before them. And
the reason he giveth of this his faith is, the observation of
the principles they usually hold forth, especially in the ap-
plicatory part of their sermons.'
A?is. What and who they were, who are thus represented
by Mr, Goodwin, in their receiving and embracing of that
doctrine, which with the great travail of their souls all their
days they preached, and pressed to and upon others, is
known to all. The persons I named before (one of them
only excepted) with all those eminent burning, and shin-
ing lights, which for so many years have laboured, with re-
nown and success, to the astonishment of the world, in the
preaching of the gospel in this nation, are the men intended.
Doubtless such thoughts have not in former days been en-
tertained of them, however the contemplation of any man's
own ability may now raise him to contempt of them. Mr.
Perkins received this doctrine, and therefore all the godly
ministers of this nation did so to. If any one of the like
esteem with him did fall off from it (now whom they should
obtain to lead them, of equal reputation and acceptance
with him who hath in vain attempted it, I know not), they
would quickly follow (not like shepherds, but sheep) into
an opposition thereunto. Those who have not very slight
thoughts of them, which doubtless they that are fallen
asleep did not deserve, will scarcely suppose that they en-
tertained a truth of so great importance as this upon so easy
terms as these insinuated ; or that they would have parted
with it at so cheap a rate.
Farther, Why the ministers of England should be
thought to entertain this doctrine merely upon the authority
and countenance of Mr. Perkins given thereunto, when the
universality of the teachers of all other reformed churches,
of the same confession in other things with them, did also
embrace the same doctrine, and do continue in profession of
it to this day, what reason can be assigned? Had there been
a particular inducement to the ministers of England for the
receiving of it, which was altogether foreign unto them,
who as to our nation are foreigners, whence is it that there
should be such a coincidence of their judgments with them
therein ? Or why may not ours be thought to take it ujion
108 DOCTKIXE OF Tlir saints" PEUt^EVEUAXCE
the same account with them, upon Avhose Judgments and
underbtaudiugs the autliority of Mr. Perkins cannot be sup-
posed to have any influence ? Is Mr. G. tlie only person,
who in this nation hath impartially weighed all things of
concernment, to the refusing or embracing any matters or
doctrines in religion ? Have no other, in the sincerity of
their hearts, searched the Scriptures, and earnestly begged
the guidance of the Spirit, according to that encouraging
promise left by their Master, that they should receive him
KO doing? The good Lord take aw^ay from us all iiigh
thoughts of ourselves, and all contempt of them that profess
the fear of the Lord, with whom we have to do. For the
reason of Mr. Goodwin's faith in this thino-, concerning- the
readiness of the godly ministers of this nation, to aposta-
tize from the doctrine of the saints' perseverance, namely,
their manifesting themselves to be possessed of many prin-
ciples of a contrary tendency unto it, in the appiicatory
parts of their sermons, the vanity of it hath been long since
discovered ; so that there is no farther need to lay open the
unreasonableness thereof.
Mr. Goodwin, mistrusting his ability to persuade men,
that the persons of whom he hath discoursed were not clear
in their judgments, as to an opposition to that doctrine
which he positively owneth, and zealously contendeth for ;
and knowing that it cannot be denied but that they were men
of eminency for godliness, and close vvalkiiig in communion
with God all their days : yet he excepteth, as his last refuge,
'That it cannot be manifested, that this opinion had the least
influence in their pious conversation, which is wholly to be
ascribed to other commendable principles that they em-
braced.' This indeed may be said of any part of the doc-
trine whatsoever that they received, and some of them suf-
fered for. Atheists may say it, of the whole profession of
Christianity, and ascribe the goodness of the lives of the
best of them that profess it, to some other princi])les com-
mon to them with the residue of mankind, and not at all to
any of those whereby they are distinguished, as such. Tiiis
they professed to have a powerful efficacy to prevail with
them ibr that exactness in walking with God, which by his
grace they attained vmto. And why thcv should not bo
believed herein, as fur as any men whatever, beaiinu the
EXPLAINED AND COXFIRMED. 109
like testimony to any doctrine whatever, I know not. Be-
sides, the intendment of this instance of the persons and
their piety who formerly believed and spake forth this doc-
trine, was, to manifest, by an eminent experiment, that there
was not in it, nor is, any tendency to acontraiy frame unto
piety and holiness, which it is injuriously charged withal ;
and if by the consideration thereof, we do not obtain that
it hath a proper and direct serviceableness to the promo-
tion of godliness, yet at least we have a convincing demon-
stration that it is no way obstructive to it.
Nextly. sect. 26. Mr. Goodwin entereth upon his de-
fensative to the charge against his doctrine, whose founda-
tion is laid in the unvvorthiness of its authors in this nation
before it fell upon his hand. These he confesseth to be the
worst of our late bishops, with such as Romanized, and ty-
rannized among them, with their clergy creatures and fa-
vourites, persons many of them of superstition, looseness,
and much profaneness. Of the apology shaped for the
clearing of the doctrine he maintaineth from a participation
with them in their unworthiness, there are three parts. In
the first whereof, he denieth, that this doctrine did any way
induce them to the looseness that was found upon them ;
in the other two, giveth as many reasons of their receiving
of it, and cleaving to it.
As for the first part, I shall willingly assent to him that
the holiness or unholiness of professors, is not to be
charged on the religion they profess (I mean appearing ho-
liness in the profession of it), unless there be an evidence
of a connexion betwixt their principles and practices ; which
in this case, to us and our apprehension of them who charge
this doctrine vi'ith the miscarriages of those men, there is:
at least we may insist on this, that there is a suitableness in
the whole system of the doctrine, whereof the apostacy of
the saints is an eminent parcel, to that frame of spirit which
is in men of loose and superstitious ways, enemies of the
grace of God and power of godliness. Neither can there
any other reason be tolerably assigned or alleged, for the
embracement of that doctrine, by those persons formerly
mentioned, but only their ignorance of, and envy to, the
great mysteries of the gospel, the covenant of grace, with
union, communion, and close walking with God. A design
no DOCTIUXE OF THE SAlNTs' PERSEVERANCE
was upon tliem written with the beams of the sun, to cry up
a barren, outside, light, and loose profession, with a vain,
superstitious, self-invented worship of God, instead of the
power of a gospel-conversation and ordinances of Christ ac-
cording to his appointment. ' Seeking after a righteousness
as it were by the works of the law, and being ignorant of
the righteousness of Christ,' they found the whole doctrine
whose defence Mr.G. hath lately undertaken, suited to their
prniciples and aims ; and therefore with greediness drank it
down like water, until they were swelled with the dropsy of
pride and self-conceit, beyond what they could bear. What-
ever be now pretended, it was little disputed then, and ia
those days which Mr. Goodwin pointeth unto, but that
looseness of life, inclination to popery, enmity to the power
of godliness, were at the bottom of the entertainment of the
Arminian principles, by that generation of men.
But Mr. G. proceedeth to alleviate this charge, and in-
forms us thus, 'That if the soundness and rottenness of opi-
nions, should be esteemed by the goodness or badness of
the lives of any parcel or number of persons professing the
same, as well the opinion of atheism, which denieth the be-
ing of any God, as the opinion of polytheism, wdiich afiirmeth
a plurality of gods, must be esteemed better and more sound,
than that which maintaineth the being of one God and of
one only ; for certain it is, that there have been many hea-
thens professors some of the one, and some of the other of
those opinions, who have quitted themselves upon fairer
terms of honour and approbation in their lives than many
Christians, professing of the last opinion, have done.'
I am not willing to wring this nose too far, lest blood
should follow ; the lives of many atheists and pagans are
preferred before the lives of many professing Christianity.
By 'professors of Christianity,' Mr. Goodwin intendeth those
who are so indeed, and seasoned with the power of the
principles of that religion, or such only as, making an out-
ward profession of it, are indeed acted with principles quite
of another nature, which, notwithstanding all their profes-
sion, rendereth them, in the truth of the thincr itself, * ene-
miGs of the cross of Christ, their god being their belly, their
glory being in their shame, and their end being destruction ;'
JMiilip, iii, 18, 19. If the former be intended, as the asser-
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. Ill
tion is most false, the gospel only effectually ' teaching
men to deny all ungodliness, and to live soberly, righte-
ously, and godly in this present world,' so it tendeth di-
rectly to the highest derogation from the honour of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and of his glorious gospel. He that
would be thoroughly acquainted with the notorious untruth
of this insinuation, let him a little consult Tertullian, Ar-
nobius, Lactantius, Austin, and others, handling the lives
and conversations of the best of the polytheists and hea-
thens, before and in their days, if he be not contented to
take a shorter course, and rest in the authority of the apo-
stle, or rather of the Holy Ghost, describing them and their
conversations to the life, as they lay under the just hard-
ening judgments of God ; Rom. i. 18. to the end. If the
latter sort of men called Christians be intended, the compa-
rison instituted between them and atheists, is to no pur-
pose ; they themselves being disclaimed and disowned by
Christ and his gospel, and reckoned among them with whom
they are compared; so that, upon the matter, this is but the
comparing one sort of atheists with another, and giving in
a judgment, that of all, those are worst, whose practices
are so, and yet pacify their own consciences, and deceive the
world, with a pretence and flourish of a glorious profession.
I shall not now enter upon any long inquiry what influ-
ence the ungodly and profane lives of any ought to have
upon the judgments of men, in discovering and discerning
of the doctrines that they bring, especially if such as con-
sent in any doctrine, do also concur in a dissoluteness of
conversation. That it will be of no small consideration, the
experience of all ages hath evinced. The Athenians re-
fused a virtuous law, because the person was vicious who
proposed it; and it is generally esteemed that there is a
correspondency betwixt the principles and practices of
those men, who earnestly profess the promotion of those
principles, so that they are mutual producers or advantagers
one of another. This is all at present that was aimed at in
the charge upon Mr. Goodwin's doctrine, which he under-
takes to wave. It was generally embraced at its first broach-
ing in our world, by men only of a loose and scandalous
conversation, superstitious in their ways of worship, and
enemies of the power of godliness ; which being confessed,
for the argument from thence, 'valeat quantum valere potest.'
112 DOCmiXE OF THE SAIXTs' PEUSEVERAXCE
But Mr. Goodwin oriveth us two reasons, why this doc-
trine of his was so gladly received, and zealously asserted
by that generation of men. The first which he telleth you
is plain and easy to be given in, is this : * Being professed
enemies to the most religious and zealous preachers and
ministers of the land, with their adherents, whom they
termed puritans, whom they both hated and feared, as a ge-
neration of men, by whom, rather than any other, they appre-
hended themselves in dano;er of beino- dethroned, * Nee eos
fefellit Opinio.' Upon this ground they judged it a very
material point of their interest to oppose and keep under
this faction, as they termed them ; in order thereunto they
studied and cast about how to weaken their interest and
repute, with the generality of the people, or at least with all
those that were intelligent, and in that respect considerable ;
to this end wisely considering, tliat nothing was like to pre-
judice them more in their esteem with most men, than to
detect them of error and unsoundness in their doctrine, and
perceiving wiihal (as with half an eye they might, being so
fully disengaged as they were from all high thoughts of
those that held them) that they were not in any doctrine
besides which they were generally known to hold and teach,
more obnoxious to such a detection, than in those which
they held and taught in opposition to the remonstrants.
Hereupon they politically fell to profess and teach remon-
strantism, that so they might have the more frequent occasion
and opportunity to lay open the puritan doctrine before
the people, and to shew the inconsistency of it with the
Scriptures, as also with many of the most manifest princi-
ples as well of reason as religion besides.'
Ans. That this is a most vain and groundless conjecture,
T presume any one that will but cast back his thoughts
upon the posture of affairs during the reign of that genera-
tion of men, and a little consider the ways and means
whereby they were, tlnough the righteous hand of God, re-
<luced to that condition and state wherein they now are, will
<iuickly determine. The truth is, they were so far from ad-
vantaging tliemselves against their adversaries, and prevail-
ing upon them, in the esteem of the most rational and know-
ing men in the nation, by their entertaining the Arminian
doctrine, that utterly, on the other side, they dishonoured
their cause of ceremonies, <liscipline, and conformitv, which
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 113
with success they had so long carried on ^with the genera-
lity of the nation, and exposed themselves to the power of
the people of the land in parliament, from whence, as to all
other differences, they were sheltered by an appearance of
legal constitutions ; so that after some forward person of
that faction (the most contemptible indeed as to any real
worth, one or two individuals only excepted, of the whole
tribe) had, upon the grounds fore-mentioned, taken up and
made profession of the opiilions and doctrine we are speak-
ing of, they fell daily before their adversaries, as to the es-
teem of all, or at least the greatest part of those who cor-
dially and thoroughly adhered to them as to the discipline
and worship then established. Certainly the prelatical
party themselves vvill not say, they prevailed on that hand,
as to any ends and purposes for the establishment of their
interest, or making good their ground against their op-
posers. Nay, the most sober and learned of that sort of
men do, to this day, ascribe, in no small measure, the down-
fal of the whole fabric whereof they were parts and mem-
bers, to the precipitating rashness and folly of some few, in
advancing and pressing the Arminian errors that they them-
selves were given up unto. As for the zealous and godly
ministers of the nation, usually termed Puritans (who are
here acknowledged by Mr, Goodwin to have all generally
opposed the doctrine he striveth to build up), though they-
had in many parliaments, wherein the most intelligent and
rational men of the nation are usually convened, made by
their friends sundry attempts for their relief against the per-
secutions of the other, as is evidenced by their petitions
and addresses still on record, yet were never able to attain
the least redress of their grievances, nor to get one step of
ground against their adversaries, until the advantage of
their Arminianism was administered unto them, on which by
several degrees they prevailed themselves in the issue to
the utter breaking of the yoke of their task-masters. It is
true, he who * takes the crafty in their own imaginations,
and mixeth the counsel of the wise with madness and folly,
causing them to err in their ways as a drunken man in his
vomit,' doth oftentimes turn the devices of men upon their
own heads, and make those things subservient to their ruin,
which they fixed upon as the most expedient mediums for
VOL. vii. I
114 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVERANCE
their establishment and continuance; such perhaps Avas the
case with them in their canonical oath attempted to be im-
posed in one of their last convocations. But that the tak-
ing up and asserting of the Arminian doctrine was a design
of that party of men, to get upon the judgments and affec-
tions of the people, and to expose the puritanical preachers
to their contempt and reproach, is an imagination that can-
not likely fall upon any one, who had his eyes open in the
days wherein those things were publicly acted on the stage
of this nation. For that insinuation in the close of Mr.
Goodwin's discourse, concerning tlie advantages given that
sort of men, by the inconsistency of the doctrine of the pu-
ritans (which they opposed) with the principles of religion
and reason, I shall only say, that, it being once more through
the providence of God called forth to a public debate, it
neither standeth nor falleth to the judgment of any single
man, much less of one who is professedly engaged in an op-
position thereunto.
Another reason of the same evidence with the former, is
tendered in these words : 'It is generally known that the ca-
thedral generation of men throughout Christendom, were
generally great admirers of the old learning (as some call it),
I mean the writings and tenets of the fathers, and of Aus-
tin more especially, and that they frequently made shield
and buckler of their authority to defend themselves against
the pens and opinions of later writers, whom their manner
was, according to the exigency of their interest (at least as
they conceived), to slight and vilify in comparison of the
other. Now the judgment of the fathers more generally,
and of Austin more particularly, stood for the possibility
of the saints' defection, both total and final, wherein it
seemeth the greater part of our modern reformed divines
have departed from them.'
That this pretence is no whit better than that before,
will be evidenced by the light of this one consideration, viz.
That those among the bishops and their adherents, who were
indeed most zealous of, and best versed in, the writino-s of
the fathers, were generally of the same judgment about the
grace of Christ and the will of man, &c. with the residue of
the reformed churches, and the puritan preachers of our own
nation. They were a company of sciolists in comparison.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 115
and men of nothing, who arniinianized : men, as the bishop
of Lincohi once told them, whose ' learning lay in a few un-
learned liturgies.' It is true, they had gotten to such a head
and to such a height, not long before their fall, that they
w^ere ready to accuse and charge their associates as to dis-
cipline, worship, and ceremony of Puritanism, who failed not
to retort Arminianism and popery back again to them. We
know who said of the other, that they were * tan turn non in
episcopatu Puritani ;' and who returned to him and his as-
sociates, 'Tantum non uxoratu Pontificii.' The truth is,
those among them, as there were many among them, both
bishops and men (as they speak and think) of inferior orders,
who were solidly learned, especially in the writings of the
ancients (of whom many are yet alive, and some are fallen
asleep), were universally, almost to a man, of the same judg-
ment with Calvin, in the heads of our religion under consi-
deration. Jewell, Abbot, Morton, Usher, Hall, Davenant,
and Prideaux (great names among the world of learned men),
with a considerable retinue of men of repute for literature
and devotion (with whom on no account whatever the ar-
rainianizing party of the prelates and their followers are to
be named the same day), have sufficiently testified their
thoughts in this matter to all the world. From what am-
biguity of expression it is, that any sentence is stolen from
Austin, and others of the ancients, seeming to countenance
the doctrine of the saints' apostacy, hath been elsewhere
discovered, and may farther be manifested as occasion shall
be administered. And without pretence to any great skill
in the old learning, this I dare assert (whereof I have given
some account in the preface to the reader), that not one of
the ancients (much less Austin) did ever maintain such an
apostacy of saints, and such a perseverance, as that which
Mr. Goodwin contendeth for.
This being that which Mr. Goodwin hath to offer for the
clearing of the doctrine he maintaineth, from the two first
parts of the charge exhibited against il, he applieth himself,
in the last place, to contend with a common observation
made by Christians, weighing and pondering the principles
and ways of men in the days wherein we live ; namely, the
'degeneracy of the most of men, who at any time embrace it,
from their former profession, and their turning aside to the
i2
116 DOCTRIXE OF THE SAINTS PERSEVERANCE
paths of looseness and folly.' An observation which, if true
(though Mr. Goodwin is pleased to assert, that any consider-
ing man, like himself, will lauo;h it to scorn), will not easily
be digested in the thoughts of them, that are willing to
weigh aright the usual presence of God with his truths, es-
pecially at the first embracement and entertainment of them.
Neither will this observation be diverted from pursuing the
doctrine against which it is lifted up, by comparing it with
that of 'the unhappiness of marriages made between cousin-
germans,' there being nothing in that relation, that should
be a disposing cause, to any such issue as is pretended ;
much less with that farther observation, that some ' aposta-
tize from the Protestant religion, yea, from Christianity itself;'
there being not the least parity, or indeed analogy, in the
instances. If it might be affirmed of men, that after their
embracing of Christianity or the Protestant religion, they
generally decline and grow worse (as to their moral conver-
sation), than they were before, I do not know at present
what apology could be readily fixed on, that might free the
one, and the other, from grievous scandal. To fall from a
profession of any religion, or any head or part of a religion,
upon the account of the corruption that is in them, that so
fall from it, is rather an honour than a reproach to the reli-
gion so deserted. But in and upon the embracement of
any religion or doctrine in religion, for men to decline from
that, which is the proper end of all true religion (which is
the observation that riseth up against the doctrine Mr.
Goodwin asserteth in reference to very many that embrace
it), doubtless is not the crown and glory of that which they
profess. Neither is this observation built on so slight ex-
perience, as to be muzzled with proverbs of swallows and
woodcocks. The streets of our cities and paths of our vil-
lages being full of those fowls, or rather foul spirits, that
give strength unto it.
This is the whole of what Mr. Goodwin thought good to
tender for the protection of his doctrine, from the charge
laid down at the entrance of this digression ; on the consi-
deration whereof, I doubt not but it is evident how unable
he is to shield it from the wound intended unto it thereby.
And shall we now, can we, entertain any other thoughts of
it, but that (having constantly hitherto been denied and op-
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. J 17
posed by the most zealous, painful, godly, successful preachers
of the gospel, that these latter ages have been, through the
goodness of God, blessed withal, entertained chiefly by men
of loose dissohate principles and practices, enemies to the
power of godliness, and the profession thereof, and strongly
suspected to corrupt the minds and conversations of men
that do embrace it) it is the only serviceable relief and as-
sistance for the making of the ministry of the gospel useful
and fruitful, ingenerating holiness and obedience in the lives
and ways of men.
CHAP. XIV.
Mr. G.'s third argument proposed and considered. The drama borrowed
hij Mr. G. to mrtke good this ar(jument. The frame of speech ascribed to
God according to our doctrine by the remonstrants weighed and con-
sidered. The dealing of God with man, and the importance of his ex-
hortations, according to the doctrine of the saints' perseverance manifested.
In what sense, and to n-hat end, exhortations and threatenings are made
to believers. The fallacious ground of this argument of Mr. G. Mr.
G.'s. fourth argument proposed to consideration, considered. Eternal
life, how and in what se7ise a rev:ard of perseverance. The enforcement
of the major proposition considered. Tlie proposition new moulded, to
make it of concernment to our doctrine, and denied: from the example of
the obedience of Jesus Christ. Efficacy of grace not inconsistent with re-
ward. The argument enforced with a new consideration : that considera-
tion examined, and removed. Farther of the consistency of effectual
grace, and gospel exhortations,
A THIRD argument is proposed, sect. 18. chap. 13. in these
words: 'That doctrine which representeth God as weak, in-
congruous, and incoherent with himself, in his applications
unto men, is not from God, and consequently that which
contradicteth it, must needs be the truth: but the doctrine
of perseverance, opposed by us, putteth this great dishonour
upon God, representeth him weak, incongruous,' &c. ergo.
For the proof of the minor proposition, to make good the
charge in it exhibited against the doctrine of perseverance,
there is a dramatical scheme induced, to whose framintr and
application IMr. Goodwin contributed no more but the pains
of a trans!ator,taking it from the Anti-synod, pp. 276, 277. in
118 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXTS' PERSEVERANCE
these words : * You that truly believe in my Son, and have
been once made partakers of my Holy Spirit, and therefore
are fully persuaded and assured from my will and command
given unto you in that behalf, yea, according to the infallible
word of truth which you have from me, that you cannot pos-
sibly, no not by all the most horrid sins and abominable
practices, that you shall or can commit, fall away either to-
tally or finally from your faith; for in the midst of your
foulest actions and courses there remains a seed in you which
is sufficient to make you true believers, and to preserve you
from falling away finally, that it is impossible you should
dre in your sins; you that know and are assured, that I v\ill
by an irresistible hand work perseverance in you, and conse-
quently that you are out of all danger of condemnation, and
that heaven and salvation belong unto you, and are as good
as yours already, so that nothing but giving of thanks ap-
pertains to you, which also you know that I will, do what
you will in the meantime, necessitate you mito; you, I say,
that are fully and thoroughly persuaded and possessed with
the truth of all these things, I earnestly charge, admonish,
exhort, and beseech, that ye take heed to yourselves, that
ye continue in the faith, that there be not at any time an
evil heart of unbelief in any to depart from the living God,
that you fall not from your own steadfastness ; yea, I declare
and profess unto you, that if you shall draw back, my soul
shall have no pleasure in you, that if you shall deny me, I
will deny you, that if you be again overcome of the lusts of
the world, and be entangled herewith, that your latter end
shall be worse than your beginning, that if you shall turn
away, all your former righteousness shall not be remembered,
but you shall die in your sins, and suffer the vengeance of
eternal fire. On the other hand, if you shall continue to the
end, my promise is, that you shall be saved ; therefore, strive
to enter in at the strait gate, quit yourselves like men,
labour for the meat that endureth unto everlastino- life, and
be not slothful, but followers of them, who through faith
and patience inherit the promises. He that shall duly weigh
and consider wdiat a senseless and indeed ridiculous incon-
gruity there is, between these exhortations, adjurations,
threatenings, and latter promises, and those declarations, ap-
plications, and former promises, doubtless will confess, that
EXPLAIXED AND CONFIRMED. 119
either the one or the other of them are not from God, or ac-
cording to the mind of God.'
^/is. The incongruity of this fiction, with the doctrine it
is framed against, is so easily manifested, that it will not
much concern us, to consider the incongruity that the seve-
ral parts of it have one with another. For,
First, The whole foundation of this fanatic fabric, is ridi-
culous in itself, and ridiculously imposed on the doctrine of
perseverance. For whereas it says, not that all saints have
any comfortable assurance of their perseverance, and so may,
by all gospel ways whatever, by promises and threatenings,
be stirred up to the use of those means whereby perseverance
is wrought, and assurance obtained ; so it says, that no one
saint in the world, ever had, can have, or was, taught to ex-
pect his perseverance, or the least sense or assurance of it,
under such an uncouth supposition, as falling into and con-
tinuing in sins and abominations; the promises they have
to assure them of their inseparable abode with God to the
end, are, 'that he will write his law in their hearts, and put
his fear in their inward parts ; that they shall never depart
from him;' and they shall be kept up thereto, by the use of
means suitable as appointed of God for the attaining of the
end proposed, being 'kept by the power of God, but through
faith, unto salvation.' God doth not call (nor doth the doctrine
of perseverance of the saints, or of the stability and unchange-
ableness of his promises in Christ to believers, assert it) any
to believe that they shall never fall away from him, what
sins and rebellions soever they fall into ; neither hath he
promised any such things unto them, but only that he will,
through his grace, preserve them in the use of means from
such rebellions, as are inconsistent with his love and free ac-
ceptation through Christ, according to the tenor of the cove-
nant of grace ; so that instead of the first part of this fiction,
whose inconsistency with the latter is after argued, let tiiis,
according to the analogy of our doctrine, be instituted,
'You that truly believe in my Son Jesus Christ, and are
made partakers of my Holy Spirit, who being heirs of the
promises, and so have a right to that abundant consolation,
that joy in believing, which I am willing all of you should
receive ; 1 know your fears, doubts, perplexities, and tempta-
tions, your failings, sins, and backslidings, and what sad
120 DOCTllIXE OF THE SAIXTS' PERSEVERANCE
thoughts on the account of the evil of your own hearts and
ways you are exposed to, as that you shall never abide, nor
be able to continue with me, and in my love, to the end : let
the feeble knees be strengthened, and the hands that hang
down be lifted up : behold, 1 have ordained good works for
you to walk in, as the way wherein you are to walk for the
attainment of the end of your faith, the salvation of your
souls ; and to quicken you and stir you up hereunto, I have
provided and established effectual ordinances, revealed in
the word of my grace, whereunto you are to attend, and in
the use of them, according to my mind, to grow up into ho-
liness, in all manner of holy conversation, watching, fighting,
resisting, contending with, and against, all the spiritual
enemies of your souls. And as for me, this is my covenant
with you, that my Spirit, which gives efficacy to all the
means, ordinances, and advantages of gospel obedience,
which I have afforded unto you, by whom I will fulfil in
you all the good pleasure of my goodness, and the work of
faith with power, so making you meet for the inheritance of
the saints in light, and preserving you to my heavenly king-
dom, shall never depart from you; so tliatyou, also, having
my law written in your hearts, shall never utterly and wick-
edly depart from me. And for such sins and follies as you
shall be overtaken withal, I will graciously heal your back-
slidings, and receive you freely.'
This is the language of the doctrine we maintain, which
is not (we full well know) obnoxious to any exceptions or
consequences whatever, but such as bold and prejudiced
men, for the countenance of their vain conceits and opinions,
will venture at any time to impose and fasten on the most
precious truths of the gospel. That God should say to be-
lievers, as is imposed on him, ' Fall into what sins they will,
or abominations they can, yet he will have them believe,
that by an irresistible hand, he will necessitate them to per-
severe ;' that is, in and under their apostacy (which is evi-
dently implied in their falling into sins and abominations in
the manner insisted on), is a ridiculous fiction, to the imagi-
nation whereof the least colour is not supplied, by the doc-
trine intended to be traduced thereby.
Secondly, For the ensuing exhortations, promises, and
threatenings, as far as they are really evangelical, whose use
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED, 121
and tendency is argued to be inconsistent with the doctrine
before proposed, I have formerly manifested. What is their
proper use and efficacy in respect of believers, and their
consistency with the truth we maintain, apprehended as it is
indeed, and not vvizarded with ugly and dreadful appear-
ances, will I presume scarcely be called in question by any,
who having received * a kingdom that cannot be shaken,' do
know what it is to ' serve dod acceptably, with reverence and
godly fear.' It is true, they are made unto, and have their
use in reference unto them that believe, and shall persevere
therein : but they are not given unto them, as men assured
of their perseverance ; but as men called to the use of means
for the establishing of their souls in the ways of obedience.
They are not, in the method of the gospel, irrationally hap-
ped on such intimations of unchangeable love, or proposed
under such wild conditionals and suppositions, as here by
our author; but annexed to the appointment of those ways
of grace and peace, which God calls his saints unto, being
suited to work upon the new nature wherewith they are en-
dued, as spreading itself over all the faculties of their ra-
tional souls, wherein are principles fit to be excited to ope-
ration, by exhortations and promises.
Thirdly, All that is indeed argumentative in this dis-
course, is built on this foundation; that a spiritual assurance
of attaining the end by the use of means, is discouraging
and dissuasive to the use of those means. A proposition so
uncouth in itself, so contradictory to the experience of all
the saints of God, so derogatory to the glory and honour of
Jesus Christ himself (who in all his obedience had doubtless
an assurance of the end of it all), as any thing that can well
fall into the imaginations of the hearts of men. Might not
the devil have thus replied upon our Saviour, when he tempted
him to turn stones into bread, and cast himself from a pin-
nacle of the temple, and received answer, that ' man lives not
by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God?' But alas, 'thou Jesus the Son of the livino-
God, that art persuaded thou art so, and that God will pre-
serve thee, whether thou usest any means or no, that thou
shalt never be starved for want of bread, nor hurt thyself by
any fall, whatever thou dost, the angels having charge that
no evil shall come nigh thee, nor thy foot be hurt against a
122 DOCTRIXE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
Stone, thou mayest now cast thyself headlong from the tem-
ple, to manifest thy assm-ance of the love and faithfulness of
God with his promises to thee.' If our Saviour thought it
sufficient to stop the mouth of the devil, to manifest from
Scripture, that notwithstanding the assurance from God that
any one hath of the end, yet he is to use the means tending
thereunto, (a neglect whereof is a sinful tempting of God);
we shall not need to go farther for an answer to the same
kind of ohjections in the mouth of any adversary whatever.
His nineteenth section containeth his fourth argument,
in these words :
' If there be no possibility of the saints falling away finally,
then is their persevering incapable of reward from God. But
their final perseverance is not incapable of reward from God :
ergo. The minor proposition I presume contains nothing but
what is the sense of those who deny the conclusion : or, how-
ever, it contains nothing but what is the express sense of the
Lord Christ, where hesaith. That he that endureth to the end,
the same shall be saved ; therefore, I suppose we shall be ex-
cused from farther proof of this, without any prejudice to
the cause in hand.'
Ans. I grant eternal life may be called the reward of
perseverance in the sense that the Scripture useth that word,
applied to the matter in hand ; it is afterward neither pro-
cured by (properly and morally as the deserving cause), nor
proportioned unto, the obedience of them by wiiom it is at-
tained ; a reward it is, that withal is the free gift of God,
and an inheritance purchased by Jesus Christ ; a reward of
bounty, and not of justice, in respect of them upon whom it
is bestowed, but only of faithfulness in reference to the pro-
mise of it : a reward, by being a gracious encouragement,
as the end of our obedience, not as the procurement or de-
sert of it; so we grant it a reward of perseverance, though
those words of our Saviour, ' he that endureth to the end,
the same shall be saved,' expressed a consequence of things
only, and not a connexion of casuality of the one upon the
other : of the foundation of this discourse concerning a pos-
sibility of declining, immediate consideration shall be had.
He proceeds then:
'The consequence of the major proposition stands firm
upon this foundation ; No act of the creature whereunto it is
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 123
necessitated, or which it cannot possibly decline, or but do,
is, by any law of God or rule of justice, rewardable; theie-
fore, if the saints be necessitated by God to persevere finally,
so that he leaves unto them no possibility of declining finally,
their final perseverance is not, according to any law of God
or man, nor indeed to any principles of reason or equity, ca-
pable of reward ; no whit more than actions merely natural
are : nay, of the two, there seems to be more reason why acts
merely natural (as for example, eating, drinking, breathing,,
sleeping) should be rewarded, inasmuch as these flow in a
way of necessity, yet from an inward principle and connatu-
ral to the agent, than such actions whereunto the agent is
constrained, necessitated, and determined, by a principle of
power from without, and which is not intrinsical to it.'
And this is the strength of the argument, which will
quickly appear to be very weakness. For,
First, The efficacy of these expressions (whereunto it is
necessitated, and from which they cannot possibly decline),
as to their influence into this argument, ariseth clearly from
their ambiguity; we deny any to be necessitated to perse-
vere, or that our doctrine affirms any such thing, taking that
expression to hold out a power upon their wills in their opera-
tions, inconsistent with the utmost liberty whereof in spirit-
ual things (having received a spiritual principle) men are ca-
pable. They are not so necessitated to persevere as that all
the acts of their obedience, whereby they do persevere, should
not be free but necessary, indeed they are not at all, nor in
any sense, necessitated to persevere : there is no necessity
attends their perseverance, but only in respect of the event,
with reference to the unchangeable purpose and infallible
promise of God ; the like may be said of that other expres-
sion ' possibility of declining :' God leaves in them a pos-
sibility of declining, as to their way and manner of walking
with him, though he leaves not to them a possibility of de-
clining or falling totally from him, as to the issue and event
of the whole matter, which doth not in the least necessitate
them to, or in, any of their operations.
Secondly, The proposition must be cast into another
mould, before it will be of any determinate signification in
opposition to the doctrine it opposeth ; and tuned to an-
other mood, before it will give a certain sound to any battle
124 DOCTUIXE OF THE SAIXTS' PERSEVERANCE
against it; and this is, that no act of the creature that is
wrought in order to the obtaining of any end jDroraised to
be certainly attained thereby, is revvardable of God (though
for perseverance it is not any act of the creature, but only
a modus of its obedience); and thus it looks towards the con-
cernment of this doctrine; yet before this proposition pass,
to omit sundry other things that would gladly rise to the
destruction of it, I desire one query may be assailed con-
cerning the obedience of Jesus Christ, whether it were not
necessary that the end of his obedience should follow? And
whether it were not impossible he should decline from his
obedience ? And if it were, whether it were impossible that
God should give a reward thereunto ?
But, thirdly. The intendment of this proposition, as far
as it concerns us (and that indeed is with a respect to our
doctrine of the efficacy of grace, and not this of persever-
ance), is this, 'That which is wrought in us, by the effectual
grace of God, is not capable of reward from God ;' a propo-
sition, which though capable of some plea and colour, taking
'reward' in a pure legal sense; supposing the persons seek-
ing after it, to do it by a service and duties proportioned
unto it, yet is so openly and directly contradictory to the
tenor and design of God in the covenant of grace by Jesus
Christ, with the whole dispensation of the Spirit given to
abide with believers, for all the ends and purposes as to their
obedience, as I shall content myself to deny it, expecting
Mr. Goodwin's proofs of it. When 'rivers run backward, heavy
things ascend/ &c.
Fourthly, For the flourish added to these assertions, by
comparing the acts of the saints' obedience upon a supposi-
tion of the grace of God ' working them in them,' with their
natural actions of 'eating, drinking, sleeping,' as to their ten-
dency to exalt the glory of God in rewarding, it proceeds
either from gross ignorance of the doctrine opposed, or wil-
ful prevaricating from that light of it which he hath who
ever taught that God's operations in and towards believers,
as to their perseverance in faith and obedience, did consist
in an outward constraint of an unwilling principle. God
gives a principle of obedience to them, he writes and im-
plants his law in their hearts, and moves them eflfectually to
act suitably to that inward principle they have so received;
EXPLAINED AXD CONFIRMED. 125
which though spiritual and supernatural in respect of its rise
and manner of bestowing, yet is connatural to them in re-
spect of its being a principle of operation. VVe are not then
in the least beholding to our author for his following con-
cession. ' That as a prince may give great things to them that
eat, and drink, and breathe, but not as rewards, so God may
give eternal life to them that are so necessitated by him to
persevere, though not as a reward.' For although we will not
contend with God about eternal life ; that he give it us un-
der the notion of a reward, and desire to be much affected
with the consideration of it, as a free oift of o-vace, an emi-
nent purchase of the blood of God, and look upon it merely
as a revv'ard of bounty, so called as being the end whereunto
our obedience is suited and the rest of our labours, yet we
say, in an evangelical sense and acceptation, it is properly
so proposed to that obedience and perseverance therein,
which is wrought in us by the efficacy of the grace of God,
as it lies in a tendency unto that end, which to be attained
by those means, he hath infallibly determined.
He proceeds, therefore, to enforce his argument with a
new consideration.
' If we speak of rewards promised in order to the moving
or inclining of the wills of men towards such or such actions
and ways, of which kind also the rewards mentioned in the
Scriptures, as yet remaining to be conferred by God upon
men, are, the case is yet more clear ; viz. That they are ap-
propriate unto such actions and ways, unto the election and
choice, whereof men are not necessitated in one kind or
other ; especially not by any physical or foreign power :
for to what purpose should a reward be promised unto me,
to persuade or make me willing to engage in such or such a
course, or to perform such and such a service, in case I be ne-
cessitated to the same engagement or performance other-
ways? Or what place is there left for a moral inducement,
where a physical necessity hath done the execution ? Or if the
moral inducement hath done the execution, and sufficiently
raised and engaged the will to the action, with what congruity
of reason, yea, or common sense, can a physical necessity be
superinduced?'
Jns. What there is more in this than what went before,
unless sophistry and falsity, I see not. For, first. Though I
conceive that eternal life is proposed in the Scripture as our
120 DOCTRIXE OF THE S A I XTs' PERSEVER AN CE
reward, rather upon the account of supporting and cheering
our spirits in the deficiencies, temptations, and entanglements
attending our obedience, than directly to engage unto obe-
dience (though consequently it doth that also), vvhereunto we
liave so many other unconquerable engagements and induce-
ments; yet the consideration thereof in that sense also, as it
moves the wills of men to actions suitable to the attainment
of it, is very well consistent with the doctrine in hand. That
old calumny, a hundred times repeated and insisted on in
this contest, of our wills being necessitated and deprived of
their choice and election, unless it could be tolerably made
good, will be of no use to Mr. Goodwin as to his present
purpose. The whole strength of this argumentation is built
on this supposal; That the effectual grace of God in its
working the will and deed in believers, or the Spirit's doing
of it by grace, with God's fore-determination of events, doth
take away the liberty of the will, inducing into it a necessary
manner of operation, determining it to one, antecedently in
order of time to its ovvn determination of itself, which is false,
and no v.ise inferred from the doctrine under consideration.
Yea, as God's providential concurrence with men and deter-
mination of their wills, to all their actions as actions is the
principle of all their natural liberty; so his gracious concur-
rence with them, or operations in them, as unto scriptural
effects, working in them to will, is the principle of all their
true spiritual liberty : ' when the Son makes us free, then are
we free indeed.' The reward then is proposed to an under-
standing enlightened, a will quickened and made free by
grace, to stir them up to actions suitable to them, who are
in expectation of so bountiful a close of their obedience :
(which actions are yet wrought in them by the Spirit of God,
whose fruits th.ey are) and this to very good purpose, in the
hearts of all thatknow whatitisto walk^with God, and to serve
him in the midst of temptations, unless they are under the
power of some such particular error, as turns away their eyes
from believing the truth.
Secondly, The opposition here pretended between a phy-
sical necessitating, and a moral inducement, for the })ro-
ducing of the same effect, is in plain terms intended be-
tween tlie efficacy of God's internal grace, and the use of ex-
ternal exhortations and motives ; if God give an internal
i>riucii)le, orspiritual habit, fitting for, inclining to, spiritual
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 127
actions and duties ; if he follows the work so begun in us
(who yet of ourselves can do nothing, nor are sufficient to
think a good thought) with continual supplies of his Spirit
and grace, ' working daily in us according to the exceeding
greatness of his power, the things that are well pleasing in
his sight,' then, though he work upon us, as creatures endued
with reason, understandings, wills, and affections, receiving
glory from us according to the nature he hath endued us
withal, all exhortations and encouragements to obedience re-
quired at our hands, are vain and foolish ; now because we
think this to be the very wisdom of God, and the opposition
made unto it to be a mere invention of Satan, to magnify
corrupted nature, and decry all the efficacy of the grace of
the new covenant, we must have something besides and be-
yond the naked assertion of our author, to cause us once to
believe it.
Thirdly, The great execution that is made by moral in-
ducement solely, without any internally efficacious grace, in
the way of gospel obedience, is often supposed, but not once
attempted to be put upon the proof or demonstration; it
shall then suffice to deny that any persuasions, outward
motives, or inducements whatever, are able of themselves to
raise, engage, and carry out, the will unto action, so that any
good spiritual action should be brought forth on that account,
without the effectual influence and physical operation of in-
ternal grace; and Mr. Goodwin is left to prove it, together
with such other assertions derogatory to the free grace of
God, dogmatically imposed upon his reader in this chapter,
whereof some have been already remarked, and others may
in due time. The residue of this section (the 13th), spent
to prove that eternal life is given as a reward to perseverance,
having already manifested the full consistency of the propo-
sition, in a gospel acceptation of the word ' reward,' with what-
ever we teach of the perseverance of the saints, I suppose
myself miconcerned in : and, therefore, passing by the tri-
umphant conclusion of this argument asserting an absolute
power in men to exhibit or, decline from, obedience, I shall oq
on to that, which, in my apprehension, is of more import-
ance, and will give occasion to a discourse, I hope, not un-
useful or unprofitable to the reader; I shall therefore assi^-n
it a peculiar place and chapter to itself.
128 DOCTIUXE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVERANCE
CHAP. XV.
Ml'. G.^sfflh argument for the apostact/ of true believers. The weight of
this argument taken from the sins of believers. The difference between
the sins of believers and unregencrate persons proposed to consideration,
James i, 14, 15. The rise and progress of lust and sin. The fountain
of all sin, in all persons, is lust, Rotn. vii. 7. Observations dealing
the difference between regenerate and imrcyenerate persons in their sin-
ning, as to the common fountain of all sin: the first. The seco)id, of the
unirersality nf lust in the soul bif nature. The third, in two inferences :
the first, nnregcnerate men sin with their whole consent. The second in-
ference concerning the reign of sin, and reigning sin. The fourth, con-
cerning the universal possession of the soul by renewing grace. The fflh,
that true grace bears rule wherever it be. Inferences from the former
considerations. The first, that in every regenerate person there are di-
verse principles of all moral operations: Rom. vii. 19, 20. opened. The
second, that sin cannot reign in a regenerate pers'in. The third, that re-
generate persons sin not with their whole consent. Answer to the arr/u-
vient at the entrance proposed. Believers never sin icith their ivhole con-
sent and wills. Mr. G.'s attempt to remove the answer. His exceptions
considered and removed. Plurality of wills in the same person, in the
Scripture sense : of the opposition between fiesh and spirit: that no rege-
nerate person sins leith his full consent, proved. Of the Spirit, and his
lustinys in us. The actings of the Spirit in us free, not suspended on any
conditions in us . The same farther manifested. Mr. G.'s discourse of
the first and second motions of the Spirit considered. The same conside-
rations farther carried on. Peter Martyr s testimony considered. Rom.
\ii. 19, 2l>. considered. Difference between the opposition made to sin in
persons regenerate, and that in persons unregenerute, farther argued. Of
the sense of Rom. vii. and in what sense believers do the ivoihs of the
flesh. The close of these considerations. The answer to the argument at
the entrance of the chapter opened. The argument new formed: the
viajor proposition limited, and granted, and the minor denied. The proof
of the major considered: Gal. \. 21. Ej^h. v. 5, 6". 1 Cor. vi, 9, 10. Be-
lievers how concerned in comminutions. Threatening proper to unbelievers
for their sins. Farther objections proposed and removed. Of the pro -
o-ress of saints intemptiny to sin. 'J he effect of lust in temptations. Dif-
ference between regenerate and unreyenerate persons as to the tempting of
Inst, 1. in respect of unirersality ; 2. of power. Objections answered.
Whether believers sin only out of infirmity. Whether believers may sin
out of mil lice, and with deliberation, Of the state of believers, who upon
their sin may be excommunicated. Whether the body of Christ may be
dismembered. What body of Christ it is thai is intended. Mr. G.'s
thoughts to this purpose examined. 3Ir. G.'s discourse of the way ivhere-
by Christ keeps or may keep his inembers examined. Members of Christ
cannot become members of Satan: 1 Cor. \\. 13. considered, of the sense
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED, 129
and use of the wordapaQ. Christ takes members out of the power of Satan,
gives vp none to him. Repetition of regeneration asserted by the doctrine
of apostacy. The repetition disproved. Mr. O.'s notion of regenera-
tion examined at large and rebuked- Relation between God and his chil-
dren indissoluble. The farther progress of lust for the production of sin ;
it draws o/f, and entaiigles: draioing away, what it is. The distance be-
tween reyenerate a)id unreyenerate persons in their being drawn away by
Just. Farther description of hitn who is draivn away by lust ; and of the
difference formerly mentioned. Of lusts enticing. How far this may
befall regenerate men. To do sin, Rom. vii. what it intendeth. Lusts
conceiving, wherein it consists. Of the bringing forth of sin, and how far
the saints of God may proceed therein. 1 John iii. 9. opened: the scope of
the place discovered: vindicated. The words farther opened. The pro-
position in the words universal : inferences from thence. The subject of
that proposition considered, every one that is born of God, what is affirmed
of them. What meant by committing of sin. Mr. G.'s oppositio?i to the
sense of that expression given. Reasons for the confirmation of it. Mr.
G.'s reasons against it, proposed and con.iidered. The farther exposition
of the word carried on: how he that is born of God cannot sin: several
kinds of impossibility. Mr. G.'s attempt to answer the argument from
this place, particularly examined. The reasons of the proposition in
the text considered : of the seed of God abideth: the nature of that seed,
what it is, wherein it consists. Of the abiding of this seed. Of the latter
part of the apostle's reason, he is born of God: our argument from the
words. Mr. G.'s endeavour to evade that argument ; his exposition of the
words removed. Farther of the meaning of the word abideth. The
close.
Mr. Goodwin's fifth argument for the saints' apostacy, is
taken from the consideration of the sins which they have
fallen into, or possibly may so do, and it is thus proposed,
sect. 20.
'They who are in a capacity, or possibility of perpetrating
the works of the flesh, are in a possibility of perishing, and
consequently in a possibility of falling away, and that finally
from the grace and favour of God, in case they be in an
estate of his grace and favour at the present; but the saints,
or true believers, are in a possibility of perpetrating the
works of the flesh, and therefore also they are in a possibility
of perishing, and so of falling away from the grace and fa-
vour of God, wherein at present they stand. The major pro-
position of this argument, to wit, they who are in a possi-
bility of perpetrating, or customarily acting the works of
the flesh, are in a possibility of perishing, is clearly proved
VOL. VII. K
130 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
from all such Scriptures which exclude all workers of ini-
quity, and fulfillers of the lusts of the flesh from the king-
dom of God ; of which sort are many ; of the which, saith the
apostle, speaking of the lusts of the flesh, adultery, fornication,
&.C. I tell you, as I have also told you in times past, that they
who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God; so
again. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, or unclean
person, nor covetous man, who is an idolator,hath any inherit-
ance ofthe kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive
you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the
wrath of God upon the children of disobedience : yet again.
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall never inherit the
kingdom, of God ? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor
idolaters shall inherit the kingdom of God. From such pas-
sages as these, which are very frequent in the Scriptures, it
is as clear as the light of the sun at noon-day, that they who
may possibly commit such sins as those specified, adultery,
fornication, idolatry, may as possibly perish and be for ever
excluded the kingdom of God.'
jijis. Because of all arguments whatever used against
the truth we assert, this seems to me to wear the best
colours on its back, and to have its face best painted ; viz.
with that plea ofthe ' inconsistency of sin wath the favour and
acception of God' seeming to have a tendency to caution be-
lievers in their ways and walkings, to be more careful in
watching against temptations, I shall more largely insist on
what the Lord hath been pleased to reveal concerning the
sins and failings of such as he is yet pleased to accept in a
covenant of mercy, whom though he chastens and sorely
rebukes, yet he ' gives not their souls over unto death, nor
takes his loving-kindness from them for ever;' now because
the inside and strength of this objection, consists in a com-
parison instituted between the sins of believers, and the sins
of unregenerate persons, which being laid in the balance are
found of equal burdensomeness unto God, and therefore are
in expectance of a like reward from him, I shall in the first
place, before I come in particular to answer the argument
proposed, manifest the difference that is between regenerate
persons and unregenerate ia their sinning, and consequently
also between their sins, wherein such principles shall be laid
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 131
down and proved, as may with an easy application remove
all that is added in the farther carrying on, and endeavoured
vindication of the argument in hand.
A foundation of this discourse we have laid in James i.
14, 15. ' But every man is tempted,' saith the Holy Ghost,
' when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then
whenlusthath conceived, it bringeth forth sin : and sin, when
it is finished, bringeth forth death.' The Holy Ghost dis-
covers the fountain of all sin, and pursues it in the streams
of it into the dead sea, vvhereinto it falls ; all sin whatever
is from temptation, and that which tempts to all sin is the
cause of all sin; this fountain of sin is here discovered, the
principle, proper, criminal cause of sin, in the beginning of
ver. 14. The adversative 'but' is exclusive of any other faulty
cause of sin, that should principally fall under our consi-
deration, especially of God, of whom mention was made im-
mediately before ; now this is affirmed to be every man's
lust. The general way and means that this original of all
sin useth for the production of it is also discovered ; and that
is, temptation. Every man's own lust tempts him ; the pro-
gress also it makes in carrying on of sin whereunto it tempts,
is farther described in the several parts and degrees of it.
1. It draws away and entices, and the persons towards
whom it exerts this efficacy, are drawn away or enticed.
2. Itconceives. ' Lust conceives:' the subject being prepared,
answering its drawing away and enticing, without more ado,
it conceives sin, and then it brings forth into action ; that
is, either into open perpetration, or deliberate determination
of its accomplishment, and then it finisheth sin, or comes up
to the whole work that sin tends to : whereunto is subjoined
the dismal end and issue of this progress of sin, which is
death : eternal death is in the womb of finished sin, and will
be brought forth by it.
This being the progress of sin from the first rise which
is lust, to the last end which is death, the way and path
that the best and most refined unregenerate men in the world
do never thoroughly forsake, though they may sometimes
step out of it, or be stopped in it ; a way wherein whoever
walks to the end, maybe sure to find the end ; I shall con-
sider the several particulars laid down, and shew in them all,
at least the most material, the difference thot is betv/een be-
K 2
132 DOCTRIXE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERAXCE
lievers and unbelievers, whilst they do walk or may walk in
in this path, and then manifest where, and when, all saints
break out of it for ever; so that they come not to the close
thereof; and therein shall give a full answer unto the whole
strength and design of the argument in hand, which consist-
eth, as was said, in a comparison instituted between the sins
and demerits of believers and unbelievers.
First, The fountain, "principle, and cause of all sin what-
ever, in all persons whatever, is lust; every one's own Inst is
the cause of his ow n sin : this is the mother, womb, Q.nd J'omes
of sin, which Paul says he had not been acquainted withal,
but by the law; Rom. vii. 7. ' Nay, I had not known sin
but by the law : for I had not known lust, except the law had
said, Thou shalt not covet.' That which in the entrance he
calls sin indefinitely, in the close he particularly terms lust ;
as being the hidden secret cause of all sin, and which once
discovered swallows up the thoughts of all other sin, it being
altogether in vain to deal with them, or to set a man's self in
opposition to them, whilst this sinful womb of them is alive
and prevalent ; this is that which we call original sin, as to
that part of it which consists in the universal alienation of
our hearts from God, and unconquerable, habitual, natural
inclination of tliem to every thing that is evil ; for this sin
works in us 'all manner of concupiscence;' Rom. vii. 8. This,
I say, is the womb, cause, and principle of sin, both in be-
lievers and unbelievers ; the root on which the bitter fruit
of it doth grow wherever it is ; no man ever sins but it is
from his own lust. And in this there is an agreement be-
tween the sins of believers and others, they are all from the
same fountain, yet not such an agreement but that there is
a difference herein also. For the clearing whereof observe.
First, That by nature this lust, which is the principle of
sin, is seated in all the faculties of the soul, receiving divers
appellations according to the variety of the subjects wOierein
it is; and is sometimes expressed in terms of privation, want,
and deficiency, sometimes by positive inclination to evil.
In the understanding it is blindness, darkness, giddiness,
folly, madness. In the will, obstinacy and rebellion. In
the heart and affections, pride, stubbornness, hardness, sen-
suality. In all negatively and privatively, death : positively,
lust, corruption, flesh, concupiscence, sin, the old inan, and
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 133
the like. There is nothino; in the soul of a man that hath
the least influence into any action as moral, but is wholly
possessed with this depraved vrcious habit, and exerts itself
always, and only, in a suitableness thereunto.
Secondly, That this lust hath so taken possession of men
by nature, that in reference to any spiritual act or duty they
are nothing else but lust and flesh; that which is 'born of
the flesh is flesh ;' John iii. 6. It is all so, it is all spiritual
flesh; that is, it is wholly and habitually corrupt, as to the
doing any thing that is good. If any thing in a man might
seem to be exempted, it should be his mind, the seat of all
those things which are commonly called the 'relics of the
image of God,' but that also is flesh as the apostle at large
asserts it, Rom. viii. and 'enmity to God;' neither is it of
any weight which is objected, ' that there is in unregene-
rate men, the knowledge of the truth which they retain in
ungodliness; Rom. i. 18. conscience accusing, and excu-
sing; Rom. ii. 14. the knowledge of sin which is by the
law, with sundry other endowments which, they say, doubt-
less are not flesh.' I answer, they are all flesh, in the sense
that the Scripture useth that word ; the Holy Ghost speaks
of nothing in man, in reference unto any duty of obedience
Jinto God, but it is either flesh or Spirit, these two compre-
hend every man in the world; 'every man is either in the
flesh, or in the Spirit ;' Rom. viii. The utmost improvement
of all natural faculties whatever, the most complete subjec-
(ion whereunto they are brought by convictions, yet leaves
the same impotency in them to spiritual good, as they were
born with all the same habitual inclination to sin, however
entangled and hampered from going out to the actual perpe-"
trating of it ; neither are they themselves any thing the better,
nor hath God any thing of that glory by them, which ariseth
from the willing obedience of his creatures.
Thirdly, It being the state of every man's proper lust,
which is the fountain of all sin, two things will follow.
First, That in whomsoever it is, in its compass and power
as above described, as it is in every unregenerate man, how-
ever convinced of sin, he sins with his full and whole con-
sent ; all that is within him consents to every sin he commits ;
unregenerate men sin. with their whole hearts and souls. In
every act their carnal minds are not, will not be, subject to
134 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
the law of God; their wills and all their affections delight
in sin ; and this because there is no principle in them, that
should make any opposition to sin; I mean such a spiritual
opposition, as would really take off from their full consent.
It is true consciience repines, witnesses against sin, reproves,
rebukes, excuses or accuses ; but conscience is no real prin-
ciple of operation, but either a judge of what is done, or to
be done, or a moral inducer to doing or not doing; and
whatever conscience doth, however it tumultuate, rebuke,
chide, persuade, trouble, cry, and the like, whatever convic-
tion of the guilt of sin may shew into the judgment, yet sin
hath the consent of the whole soul. Every thing that hath
a real influence into operation consents thereto, originally
and radically, however any principle may be dared by con-
science. To take off any thing from full consent, there
must be something of a spiritual repugnancy in the mind
and will, which when lust is thus enthroned, there is not.
Secondly, That sin reigneth in such persons, many have
been the inquiries of learned men about reigning of sin. As
what sins maybe said to reign, and what not? Whether sins
of ignorance may reign, as well as sins against knowledge ?
What little sins may be said to reign, as well as great?
Whether frequent relapses into any sin, prove that sin to be
reigning ? Whether sin may reign in a regenerate person ?
Or whether a saint may fall into reigning sin, whereabout
divines of great note and name have differed all upon a
false bottom and supposal. The Scripture gives no ground
for any such inquiries or disputes, or cases of conscience, as
some men have raised hereupon : and indeed, I would this
were the only instance, of men's creating cases of conscience,
and answering them, when indeed and in truth, there are no
such things ; so ensnaring the consciences of men, and en-
tangling more by their cases, than they deliver by their re-
sohitions. The truth is, there is no mention of any reigning
sin, or the reigning of any sin in the whole book of God,
taking sin for this or that particular sin ; but of the reign of
this indwelling original lust, or fountain of all sin, there is
frequent mention. Whilst that holds its power and univer-
sality in the soul, and is not restrained, nor straitened by
the indwelling Spirit of grace, with a new vital principle of
no less extent, and of more power than it, be the actual sins
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 135
few or more, known or vinknown, little or great, all is one ;
sin reigns, and such a person is under the power and domi-
nion of sin : so that in plain terms, to have sin reign, is to
be unconverted ; and to have sin not to reign, is to be con-
verted, to have received a new principle of life from above.
This is evident from the fifth and sixth chapters of the epistle
to the Romans ; the seat of this doctrine of reigning sin, the
opposition insisted on by the apostle, is between the reign of
sin and grace ; and in pursuit thereof, he manifests how true
believers are translated from the one to the other. To have
siu reign is to be in a state of sin; to have grace reign, is to
be in a state of grace.^ So, chap. v. 21. 'As sin reigned unto
death, so grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord.' The sin he speaks of, is that
whereof he treats in all that chapter ; the sin of nature, the
lust whereof we speak, this by nature reigneth unto death ;
but when grace comes by Jesus Christ, the soul is delivered
from the power thereof. So in the whole sixth chapter, it is our
change of state and condition that the apostle insists on, in
our delivery from the reign of sin; and he tells us, this is
that that destroys it, our being under grace, ver. 14. 'Sin
shall not have dominion over you, because you are not under
the law, but under grace ;' plainly then, there are two lords
and rulers, and these are original or indwelling sin and grace
or the Spirit of it; the first lord, the apostle discovers with
his entrance upon his rule and dominion, chap. v. and this
all men by nature are under ; the second he describes, chap. vi.
which sets out the rule and reign of grace in believers by
Jesus Christ. And then.
Thirdly, The place that both these lords have in this life
in a believer, chap. 7. This then is the only reigning sin,
and in whomsoever it is in its power and compass as it is in
all unregenerate men, in them, and in them only, doth sin
reign, and every sin they commit is with full consent (as
was manifested before), in exact willing obedience to the
sovereign lord that reigns in them.
Fourthly, Observe that the grace, new creature, principle
or spiritual life that is given to, bestowed on, and wrought
in all, and only, believers, be it in the lowest and most remiss
-degree that can be imagined, is yet no less universally spread
over the whole soul, than the contrary habit and principle of
136 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
lust and sin, whereof we have spoken. In the understanding
it is light in the Lord; in the will, life; in the affections,
love, delight, &c. those being reconciled, who were alien-
ated by wicked works. Wherever there is any thing, the
least of grace, there something of it is in every thing of the
soul, that is a capable seat for good or evil habits, or dis-
positions ; ' He that is in Christ is a new creature ;' 2 Cor.
v. 17. not renewed in one or other particular, 'he is a new
creature.'
Fifthly, That wherever true grace is, in what degree so-
ever, there it bears rule ; though sin be in the same subject
with it ; as sin reigns before grace comes, so grace reigns
when it doth once come : and the reason is, because sin hav-
ing the first rule and dominion in the heart, abiding there,
there is neither room nor place for grace, but what is made
by conquest. Now whoever enters into a possession by
right of conquest, what resistance soever be made, if he pre-
vail to a conquest, he reigns. In every regenerate man,
though grace be never so weak, and corruption never so
strong, yet properly the sovereignty belongs to grace. Hav-
ing entered upon the soul, and all the powers of it by con-
quest so long as it abides, there it doth reign ; so that to
say a regenerate man may fall into reigning sin, as it is com-
monly expressed (though as we have manifested no sin reigns,
but the sin of nature, as no good act reigneth, but the spi-
rit and habit of grace), and yet continue regenerate, is all one
as to say, he may have, and not have true grace at the same
time.
Now from these considerations, some farther inferences
may be made. First, That in every regenerate person, there
are in a spiritual sense, two principles of all his actings :
two wills ; there is the will of the flesh, and there is the will
of the Spirit; a regenerate man is spiritually, and in Scrip-
ture expression, two men; a new man and an old ; an inward
man and a body of death ; and hath two wills, having two na-
tures, not as natural faculties, but as moral principles of ope-
ration ; and this keejis all his actions as moral, from being
perfect, absolute, or complete, in any kind. He doth good
with his whole heart upon the account of sincerity, but he
doth not good with his whole heart upon the account of per-
fection ; and when he doth evil there is still a non-submit-
EXPLAINED AND COXFIUMED. 137
ting, an unconsenting principle ; this the apostle complains
of, and declares, Rom. vii. 19, 20. ' The good that 1 would,
I do not, but the evil which I would not, that do I ; now if
I do that 1 would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin
that dwells in me ; I find then a law, that when I would do
good, evil is present with me ; for 1 delight in the law of
God after the inward man.' There is an ' T and an ' F at op-
position, a will and not willing; a doing and not doing; a
delighting and not delighting, all in the same person ; so
that there is this difference at the entrance, between what
sin soever of regenerate persons and others, though the prin-
ciple of sinning be the same, for the kind and nature of it in
them and others; all sin, every man's sins, be who he will,
believer or unbeliever, being tempted by his own lust : yet
that lust possesseth the whole soul, and take;i in the virtual
consent of the whole man, notwithstanding the control and
checks of conscience, the light of the judgment, in him that
is miregenerate ; but in every regenerate person, there is an
unconsenting principle, which is as truly the man himself,
that doth not concur in sin, that doth expressly dissent from
it, as the other is from whence it flows.
Secondly, That sin neither can, doth, nor ever shall, reio-n
in regenerate persons. The reason of this I acquainted you
with before, and the apostle thinks this a sufiicient proof of
this assertion, because ' they are under grace;' Rom. vii. 14.
Whilst the principle of grace abides in them, which reio-ns
wherever it be, or the free acceptance of God in the o-ospel
is towards them, it is impossible upon the account of any
actual sin whatever, whereinto they may fall, that sin should
reign in them : nothing gives sin a reign and dominion, but
a total defect of all true grace whatever, not only as to the
exerting itself, but as to any habitual relicts of it; it may
be overwhelmed sometimes with temptations and corruptions,
but it is grace still, as the least spark of fire is fire, thouoh
it should be covered with never so great an heap of ashes,
and it reigns then.
Thirdly, That regenerate persons sin not with their whole
and full consent. Consent may be taken two ways ; first,
morally, for the approbation of the thing done ; so the apos-
tle says, that in the inward man, he did 'consent to the law,
that it was good ;' Rom. vii. 16. that is, he did approve it as
138 DOCTRIXE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
such, like it, delight in it as good ; and thus a regenerate
man never consents to sin; no, nor unregenerate persons
neither, unless they are such as being 'past feeling, are given
up to work lasciviousness with greediness :' a regenerate per-
son is so far from thus consenting to sin, that before it, in
it, after it, he utterly condemns, disallows, hates it as in him-
self, and by himself committed. Secondly, consent maybe
taken in a physical sense, for the concurrence of the com-
manding, and acting principles of the soul unto its opera-
tions : and in this sense, an unregenerate man sins with his
full consent, and his whole will ; a regenerate man doth not,
cannot do so. For though there is not in that consent to
sin, which his will inclined by the remaining disposition of
sin in it, doth give an actual sensible reaction of the other
principle, yet there is an express not consenting; and by the
power that it hath in the soul (for habits have power in and
over the subjects wherein they are), it preserves it from being
wholly engaged into sin ; and this is the great intendment of
the apostle, Rom. vii. 19 — 22.
From what hath been spoken will easily appear what an-
swer may be given to the former argument, to wit, that not-
withstanding any sins that either the Scripture or the ex-
perience of men, do evince that the saints may fall into, yet
that they never sin or perpetrate sin with their full and whole
consent, whereby they should be looked upon, in and under
their sins, in the same state and condition with unregenerate
persons in whom sin reigneth, committing the same sin, and
how insufficient any thing produced by Mr. Goodwin, in de-
fence of the argument laid down at the entrance of this chap-
ter, as to remove the answer given unto it from believers not
sinning with their whole consent, may easily be demonstrated.
This he thus proposeth :
'Some to maintain this position, That all the sins of true
believers are sins of infirmity, lay hold on this shield, such men,
they say, never sin with their whole wills, or with full con-
sent, therefore they never sin but through infirmity ; that
they never sin with full consent, they conceive they prove
sufficiently from that of the apostle. For the good that I
would, I do not, but the evil that I would not, that I do. Now
if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but
sin that dwellcth in mo. I answer, first, that the saints
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 139
cannot sin but with their whole wills or full consents, is un-
deniably proved by this consideration : viz. Because other-
wise there should be not only a plurality or diversity, but
also a contrariety of wills in the same person, at one and
the same instant of time, viz. when the supposed act of evil
is produced. Now it is an impossibility of the first evidence,
that there should be a plurality of acts, and these contrary
one to the other in the same subject or agent, at one or the
same instant of time ; it is true, between the first movings of
the flesh in a man towards the committing of the sin, and the
completing of the sin by an actual and external patration
of it, there may be successively in him not only a plurality,
but even a contrariety of volitions or motions of the will,
according to what the Scripture speaketh concerning the
flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the
flesh; but when the flesh, having prevailed in the combat,
bringeth forth her desire into act, the Spirit ceaseth from
his act of lusting ; otherwise it would follow that the flesh
is greater and stronger in her lusting, than the Spirit of God
in his ; and that when the flesh lusteth after the perpetration
of such or such a sin, the Spirit as to the hindering of it lust-
eth but in vain, which is contrary to that of the apostle.
Greater is he that is in you (speaking as it is clear of the
Spirit of God unto true believers), than he that is in the
world ; meaning Satan and all his auxiliaries, sin, flesh, cor-
ruption.'
A)is. What we intend by the saints not sinning with their
whole wills hath been declared; that there is not a consist-
ency in the explanation we have given, Mr. Goodwin as-
serts, because it would infer ' a plurality, yea a contrariety
of wills in the same person at the same time.' That there
is a plurality, yea a contrariety of wills in the Scripture
sense of the expression of the will of a man, was before from
the Scripture declared ; not a plurality of wills in a physi-
cal sense, as the will is a natural faculty of the soul, but in
a moral and analogical sense, as it is taken for a habit or
principle of good or evil. The will is a natural faculty; one
nature hath one will ; in every regenerate man there are two
natures, the new or divine, and the old or corrupted. In
the same sense there are in him two wills, as was declared.
But, saith he, 'It is an impossibility of the first evidence
140 DOCTRIXE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVERANCE
that tliere should be a plurality of acts in the same subject,
at the same time, and these contrary one to another.' But,
1. If you intend acts in a moral consideration, unless
you add about the same object, which you do not, this as-
sertion is so far from any evidence of truth, that it is ridi-
culously false ; may not the same person love God, and hate
the devil at the same time ? But,
2. How pass you so suddenly from a plurality of wills,
to a plurality of acts ? by the will we intend (in the sense
wherein we speak of it) an habit, not any act ; i. e. The will
as habitually invested with a new principle, and not as ac-
tually willing from thence, and by virtue thereof. Arminius,
from whom our author borrows this discourse, fell not into
this sophistry ; he tells you, ' There cannot be contrary wills
or volitions about the same act ;' but is it with Mr. G. or
Arminius, an impossibility that there should be a mixed ac-
tion partly voluntary, and partly involuntary? actions whose
principles are from without by persuasion may be, so a man's
throwing his goods in the sea to save his own life ; now the
principles whereof we speak, flesh and grace, are internal
and contrary; and shall not the actions that proceed from a
faculty wherein such contrary principles have their resi-
dence, be partly voluntary, partly involuntary ?
3. But he tells you, ' That though there might be lusting
of the Spirit against the flesh before the act of sin, yet when
it comes to the acting of it then it ceaseth, and so the act
is wrought with the whole will.'
First, Though this were so, yet tliis doth not prove but
that the action is mixed, and not absolutely and wholly vo-
luntary. Mixed actions are so esteemed from the antece-
dent deliberation and dissent, though the will be at length
prevailed upon thereunto, and I have shewed before that in
the very action there is a virtual dissent, because of the op-
posite principle that is in the will. But,
Secondly, How doth it appear that the Spirit doth not
'1 I st againt the flesh' (though not to a prevalency) even in
the exertion of the acts of sin? In every good act that a
man doth, because evil is present with him, though the pre-
valency be of the part of the Spirit, and the principle of
grace, yet the flesh also with its lustings doth always in part
corrupt it; thence are all the spots, stains, and imperfec-
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 141
tions, of the holy things and duties of the saints ; and if the
flesh in its lusting, will inmix itself with our good actions
to their defilement and impairing, why may not the Spirit in
the ill, not inmix itself and its lustings therewith, but bear
off from the full influence of the will into them which other-
wise it would have.
But saith he, ' If the Spirit doth not cease lusting before
the flesh bring forth the act of sin, then is the Spirit con-
quered by the flesh, contrary to that of the apostle, 1 John
iv. 4. Stronger is he that is in you, than he that is in the
world.' But,
First, If from hence the flesh must be thought and con-
ceived to be stronger than the Spirit, because it prevails in
any act unto sin, notwithstanding the contending of the
Spirit, how much more must it be judged to prevail over it
and to conquer it, if it cause it utterly to cease, and not to
strive at all? He that restrains another that he shall not op-
pose him at all, hath a greater power than he who conquers
him in his resistance ; but why doth Mr. Goodwin fear
least the flesh should be asserted to be stronger in us than
the Spirit ? Is not his whole design to prove that it is, or
may be, so much stronger and more prevalent than it, that
whereas it is confessed on all hands, that the Spirit doth
never wholly conquer the flesh, that it shall not remain in
the saints in this life, yet that the flesh doth wholly pre-
vail over the Spirit and conquer it to an utter expulsion of
it, out of the hearts of them in whom it is.
Secondly, In the prevalency of the flesh, it is not the
Spirit himself that is conquered, but only some motions,
and actings of him in the heart; now though some particu-
lar actings and motions of his may not come out eventually
unto success, yet if he generally bears rule in the heart, he
is not to be said (even as in us and acting in us), not to be
stronger than the flesh. He is, as in us, on this account,
said to be stronger than he that is in the world, because
notwithstanding all the opposition that is against us, he pre-
serveth us in our state and condition of acceptation with
God, and walking with him with an upright heart, in good
works and duties for the most part, though sometimes the
flesh prevails unto sin, from which yet he recovers us by
repentance.
142 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
Thirdly, To speak a little to Mr. Goodwin's sense ; by
the Spirit's insufficiency it is manifest from the text urged,
and from what follows in the same place, that he intends not
a spiritual vital principle in the will, having its residence
there, with its contrary principle the flesh (perhaps he will
grant no such thing), but the Spirit of God himself. How now
doth this Spirit lust? Not formally doubtless, but by caus-
ing us so to do ; and how doth it do that in Mr. Goodwin's
judgment? Merely by persuading of us so to do; so that to
have the flesh prevail against the Spirit, is nothing in his
sense, but to have sin prevail, and the motives of the flesh
above the motives used by the Spirit, which may be done,
and yet the Spirit continue unquestionably stronger than
the flesh.
Fourthly, The sum is. If the Spirit and the flesh, lust
and grace, may be looked on as habitual qualities and princi-
ples in the wills of the same persons, so that though a man
hath but one will, yet by reason of these contrary qualities,
he is to be esteemed as two diverse principles of operation,
it is evident that having contrary inclinations continually,
the will hath in its actings, a relation to both these princi-
ples, so that no sin is committed by such a one with his
whole will and full consent ; that contrary qualities in a re-
miss degree may be in the same subject, is known ; ' Lippis
et tonsoribus ;' these adverse principles the flesh and
Spirit, are as those contrary qualities of the same subject ;
and the inclinations, yea and the illicit acts of the will, are
of the same nature with them ; so that in the same act they
may both be working, though not with equal efficacy. Not-
withstanding any thing then said to the contrary, it appears
that in the sins which the saints fall into, they do not sin
with their whole wills and full consent ; which of itself is a
sufficient answer to the foregoing argument.
Sect. 25. contains a discourse, too long to be imposed
upon the reader by a transcription : there are three parts of
it, the first rendering a reason, whence it is, tliat if the ' Spirit
be stronger than the flesh, yet the flesh doth often prevail
in its lustinos.'
The second, * The way of the Spirit's return, to act in us
after its motions have been rejected.'
The third endeavours a proof of the proposition denied.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 143
'That the saints sin with their full and whole consent, by
the example of David.'
For the first, he tells you, ' That the Spirit acts not to
the utmost efficacy of its vigour and strength, but only when
his preventing motions are entertained ; and seconded, with
a suitable concurrence in the hearts and wills of men;
through a deficiency, and neglect whereof, he is said to be
grieved, and quenched ; i. e. to cease from other actings,
or movings in men. This truth, is the ground of such and
such sayings, in the Epistles of Paul ; For if ye live after
the flesh, ye shall die ; but if ye through the Spirit do mor-
tify the deeds of the body, ye shall live ; for as many as are
led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God,'&c.
Alls. The Spirit here intended by Mr. Goodwin, is the holy
and blessed Spirit of grace. What his actings to the just
efficacy of his vigour and strength are, Mr. Goodwin doth
not explain, nor indeed (notwithstanding the seeming sig-
nificancy of that expression), is able. It must be to act, either
as much as he can, or as much as he will. That the Holy
Spirit in opposing sin, acts to the utmost extent of his om-
nipotency in any, I suppose will not be affirmed. If it be
as much as he will, then the sense is, he will not in such
cases, act as much as he will ; what that signifiies, we want
some other expressive phrase to declare. To let this pass ;
let us see in the next place, what his actings to this just
efficacy are suspended upon, it is then in case ' his first pre-
venting motions be received, and seconded.'
But then secondly, What are these ' first preventing mo-
tions' of the Spirit? And what is it to entertain them with
a suitable concurrence of the will? For the first, Mr. Good-
win tells us in this section, they are ' motions of a cool and
soft inspiration;' such cloudy expressions, in a thing of this
moment, are we forced to embrace. ' Preventing motions of
the Spirit,' are either internal physical acts in, with, and
upon the wills of men, working in them to will and to do
■ (called ' preventing' from the actings of the wills themselves),
or they are moral insinuations and persuasions to good, ac-
cording to the analogy of the doctrine Mr. Goodwin hath
espoused ; it is the latter only, that are here intended. The
* preventing motions of the Spirit,' are his moral persuasions
of the will, to the good proposed to its consideration.
144 DOCTUIXE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
See then in the next place, what it is to ' second, and en-
tertain these motions with a suitable concvnrence in the
heart and will ;' now this must be, either to yield obedience
to these motions, and do the good persuaded unto, or some-
thing else ; if any thing else, we desire to know of Mr.
Goodwin, what it is, and wherein it consists ; if it be to do
the good persuaded to, then what becomes I pray you of
those ' subsequenthelps,' which are suspended upon this obe-
dience, when the thing itself is already performed, which
their help and assistance is required unto ? They may well
be called 'subsequent motions,' which are never used nor ap-
plied, but when the things, whereunto they move, and pro-
voke, are before-hand accomplished and performed, yea they
are suspended on that condition.
Farther, Wherein do these ' subsequent helps' (as it is ex-
pressed) which move at a more high and glorious rate con-
sist? We have had it sufficiently argued already to a tho-
rough conviction of what is Mr, Goodwin's judgment in this
matter; viz. that he acknowledgeth no operations in or
upon the wills of men, but what are moral, by the way of
persuasion; contending to the utmost efficacy of his vigour
and strength in disputing, that there is an inconsistency
between physical internal operations, in or upon the will of
men, and moral exhortations, or persuasions, as to the pro-
duction of the same effect. This then is the frame of this
fine discourse ; if upon the Spirit's first persuasion to good,
men yield obedience and do it accordingly, the Spirit will
then with more power and vigour, move them when they
have done it, and persuade them to do it ; that this dis-
course of his doth readily administer occasion, and advan-
tage to retort upon him his third argument formerly consi-
dered, of imposing incoherent and inconsistent reasonings,
and actings upon God in his dealings with men, the intelli-
gent reader will quickly find out; and it were an easy thing
to erect a theatre, and upon Mr. Goodwin's principles, to
personate the Almighty, with an incongruous, and incohe-
rent discourse ; but we fear God.
Thirdly, That the Spirit is grieved with the sins of be-
lievers, and their walking unworthily of, or not answerably
to, the grace they have received, is clear ; Eph. iv. 31. The
apostle admonisheth believers to abstain from the sins he
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 145
there enumerates, and consequently others of the like im-
port, having put on and learned Christ, unto sanctification,
that they do not grieve the Spirit, from whom they have
received that great mercy and privilege of being sealed to
the day of redemption. But that, therefore, the subsequent
and more effectual motions of the Spirit, are not free as the
first, but suspended on our performance of that which he
first moves unto, and so, consequently, that there is neither
first nor second motion of the Spirit, but may be rendered
useless and fruitless, or be for ever prevented, is an argu-
ment not unlike that of the Papists, ' Peter, feed my sheep,
therefore, the pope is head of the church.'
The ensuing discourse also is not to be passed without
a little animadversion : thus then he proceeds ; ' Believers/
saith he, ' do then mortify the deeds of the body by the
Spirit, when they join their wills unto his, in his preventing
motions of grace, and so draw and obtain farther strength
and assistance from him, in order to the great and difficult
work of mortification, in respect of which concurrence also
with the Spirit, in his first and more gentle applications of
himself to them, they are said to be led by the Spirit, as, in
their comportments with him, in his higher and farther ap-
plication, they become filled with the Spirit, according to
the expression of the apostle, Be ye filled with the Spirit ;
i. e. follow the Spirit close in his present motions and sug-
gestions within you, and you shall be filled with him, i. e.
ye shall find him moving and assisting you upon all occa-
sions at a higher and more glorious rate.'
Ans. First, What this 'joining of our wills to the will of
the Spirit,' is, was in part manifested before ; the will of the
Spirit,' is, that we be mortified. His motions hereunto are
his persuasions, that we be so ; to join our wills to his, is,
in our will, to answer the will of the Spirit; that is, upon
the Spirit's motions we mortify ourselves. By this also he
tells us, we draw or obtain farther strength or assistance
from the Spirit, for that work which we have done already ;
but how so ? why he tells you afterward, that this is the
law of the Spirit. It seems then, that by doing one thing,
we obtain or procure the assistance of the Spirit for another,
and that by a law ; I ask by what law ? by the law of works?
by that law the apostle tells you, that we do not at all re-
VOL. VII. L
14G DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs" PERSEVERANCE
ceive the Spirit; therefore,by a parity of reason, we obtain not
any farther supplies from him, by that law : by the law of
faith or grace ? that law knows nothing of such terms, as
that we should, by any acting of ours, procure the Holy
Spirit of God, which he freely bestows, according to the
main tenor of that law. Farther; How is this second grace
obtained, and what is the law of the Spirit therein ? is it ob-
tained ex congrvo, or ex condiguo? produce the rule of God's
proceeding with his saints, or any of the sons of men, in the
matter of any gracious behovement of his, and you will out-
do whatever your predecessors, whether Pelagians, Papists,
Arminians, or Socinians, could yet attain unto. Our Lord
hath told us, ' that without him we can do nothing; yea, all
our sufficiency is of God, and without him we cannot think
a good thought ; that he works in us to will and to do ; not
only beginning, but perfecting every good work, fulfilling
in us all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work
of faith with power,' ascribing the whole of the great work
of salvation to himself and his Holy Spirit, working freely
and graciously, as he wills and pleaseth. Of this order of
his dealing with men, that his first, or preventing grace
should be free, but his subsequent grace procured by us, and
bestowed on us according to our working, and co-operation
with his first grace, invented by Pelagius, Julianus, and
Celestinus, and here introduced anew by Mr. Goodwin, he
informs us nothing at all. In brief, this whole discourse
is the mere Pelagian figment, wrapped up in general, cloudy
expressions, with allusions to some Scripture phrases (which
profane as well as erring Spirits are prone to), concerning
the bestowing ol" the grace of God, according to the differ-
ing deportments, and deservings of men, differencing them-
selves from others, and, in comparison of them, holding out
what tliey have not received.
But, secondly, ' To answer the first and gentle motions
of the Spirit, is to be led by him, and then we shall be filled
by the Spirit.' But how doth Mr. Goodwin prove, that to
be 'led by the Spirit,' is to answer his first gentle motions,
and thereby to obtain his farther and more glorious actings
and persuasions? Is it safe, thus to make bold with the
word of God? or is not this to wrest it, as ignorant and un-
stable men do, unto perdition ? Saints, 'being led by the
EXPLAI.VED AXD C'OXFIRMED. 147
Spirit of God,' and * walking after the Spirit,' are, in Rom.
viii. expressions of that effectual sanctification exerting it-
self in their conversation and walking with God, which the
Spirit of God worketh in them, and which is their duty to
come up unto, in opposition to ' living or walking after the
flesh.' If this now be attained, and the saints come up unto
it, antecedently to the subsequent grace of the Spirit, what
is that subsequent grace, which is so gloriously expressed,
and wherein doth it consist? Neither doth that expression
of * led by the Spirit,' hold out the concurrence or comport-
ment of their wills, as it is phrased, with the gentle motion
of the Spirit, but the powerful and effectual operation of the
Spirit, as to their holiness and walking with God. HvtvinaTL
Qeov ciyovTai, is not, ' they comport or concur with the Spirit
in his motions;' but by the Spirit they are acted, and carried
out to the things of God. Neither hath this any relation to
or coherence with that of the Ephesians, v. 18. ' Be filled with
the Spirit;' neither is there any such intendment in the ex-
pression, as is here intimated, of a promise of receiving more
of the Spirit, on condition of that compliance, concurrence,
and comportance, with his motions, as is intimated. That
the Spirit is sometimes taken for his graces, sometimes for
his gifts, habitually, sometimes for his actual operations, is
known. The apostle in that place dissuading the Ephesians
from turning aside to such carnal, sinful refreshments, as
men of the world went out unto, bids them, ' not be drunk
with wine, wherein is excess,' but to be 'filled with the Spi-
rit :' to take their refreshment in the joys of the Spirit, speak-
ing to ' themselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs;'
ver. 20. Could I once imagine that Mr. Goodwin had the
least thought, that indeed there was any thing in the Scrip-
ture, looking towards his intendment in the producing of
it, I should farther manifest the mistake thereof. To play
thus with the word of God, is a liberty we dare not make use
of yet.
•■, Thirdly, He concludes, 'That the reason why believers
are overcome by the lustings of the flesh, is not because the
Spirit is not stronger than the flesh, but because men have
more will to hearken to the lusts of the flesh, than to the
Spirit.
Foitunam priaini caiitabo, ct nobile belhuiu'
L 2
148 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
This is the issue of all the former swelling discourse ;
men's sins are from their own wills, and not because the
Spirit is not stronger than the flesh. And whoever doubted
it; the conclusion you were to prove, is, /That believers sin
with their whole will and full consent of their wills, and that
the new principle that is in them, doth not cause their wills
to decline from acting in sin to the just efficacy of all their
strength and vigour.' But of this ovdl ypv, for the insinua-
tion in that expression of the * will hearkening to the lusts of
the flesh, and not the lusting of the Spirit,' in a sovereign in-
difl^erency to both and a liberty for the performance of either,
in a way exclusive of good or vicious habitual principles of
operation in the will itself, I shall not now divert to the con-
sideration of.
What else remains in this section, either doth not concern
the business in hand, as the fine notions of the Spirit's return
to move believers, when his motions have been rejected, with
the manner whereof, according to his conception, must be
afterward considered apart, as the fall of David into adul-
tery and murder ; if there be need to go forth to the consi-
deration of his examples and instances : and therefore, I
shall not longer insist upon it; only the close of it, consist-
ing of an inference made from some words of Peter Martyr,
deserves consideration. 'Upon David's sin,' saith he, 'Peter
Martyr makes this observation. That the saints themselves
being once fallen into sin, would always remain in the pollu-
tion of it, did not God by his mighty word bring them out
of it; which saying of Martyr clearly also implies, that the
saints many times sin with their whole wills and full con-
sents, because were any part of their wills bent against the
committing of the sin at the time when it is committed, they
would questionless return to themselves and repent imme-
diately after, the heat and violence of the lust being over, by
reason of the satisfaction that hath been given thereunto.*
Afis. The close insinuation in Peter Martyr's words, of
the saints sinning with their whole wills, and the logic of
Mr. Goodwin's inference from them, I believe is very much
hidden from the reader. To the theology of it, I say, that
the saints Trapa tu ttXugtov, do immediately return to God
by repentance (as Peter did) upon their surprisals into sin ;
nor have they any rest in a condition of the eclipse of the
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 149
countenance of God from them, as upon sin it is always
more or less ; of David's particular case, mention may after-
ward be made. But the proof, ' that they sin with their
whole wills and full consent, because they would continue
in sin did not the Lord relieve and deliver them by his
word and grace,' is admirable. I would adventure to cast
this argument into as many shapes as it is tolerably capable
of, had I the least hope to cause it to appear any way argu-
mentative. We deny then that believers have any such power
habitually residing in them, as whereby, without any new
supplies of the Spirit or concurrence of actual grace, they
can effectually and eventually recover themselves from any
sin whatever. Which supplies of the Spirit and grace we
say, and have proved, are freely promised to them in the co-
venant of grace. But what will here follow to the support-
ment of Mr. Goodwin's hypothesis, that therefore in all
their sins or any of their sins, they ' sin with the full and
whole consent of their wills,' I suppose he alone knows.
Sect. 26. He endeavours to take off that of the apostle,
Rom. vii. 19, 20. from appearing against him in this cause
of the saints sinning with their whole wills and consents,
not not-willing the things they do. To this end he tells us,
'That when the apostle saith. The evil which I would not that
I do, his meaning is not that he did that which, at the same
time that he did it, he was not willing either in whole or in
part to do, but that he sometimes did that, upon a surprisal
by temptation or through incogitancy, which he was not ha-
bitually willing or disposed in the inward man to do : but
this no ways implies but that, at the time when he did the
evil he speaks of, he did it with the full and entire consent
of his will.'
Atis. 1. It is probable the apostle knew his own meaning,
and also how to express it, having so good a teacher to that
end and purpose as he had ; now he assures us, in the person
of a regenerate man, that as what he would he did not, so
what he didjhe would not, he hated it, ver. 15, 16. And again,
he did that which he would not, and therein consented to
the law by his not willing of that he did, that it was good ;
which whether it express not a renitency of the will, to that
which was done in part, and so far as to make the action it-
self remiss, and not to enwrap the whole consent of the will.
150 noCTUIXK OF JHE SAIXTS" PERSK VK1{ AN CE
he f'arlher declares, ver. 17. telling us, that there is a perfect
unconsenting I, or internal principle, in the very doing of
evil ; ' It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in nie.'
2. The apostle doth not say, what he was not habitually
willing- to, but what he was habitually unwilling to; that is,
what the bent of his will lay habitually against, having ac-
tual inclinations and elicit acts always to the contrary,
though sometimes overcome. IVeither in his discoursing of
it, doth he mention at all the surprisal of sin upon the inco-
gitancy and inadvertency, but the constant frame and tem-
per of a regenerate man, upon the powerful acting and striv-
ing of the principle of lust and sin dwelling in him, and re-
maining with him ; which, saith the apostle, doth often carry
them out to do those things which are contrary to the prin-
ciple of the inward man, which habitually condemns and ac-
tually wills not, or rather nills, the things that are so done,
even in their doing. And this doth manifest sufficiently,
that when he did the evil he speaks of, he did it not with
the full and entire consent of his will, as men do in whom
there is no such principle opposite to sin and sinning, as is
in him that is regenerate ; there being very much taken off
by the habitual principle of grace that is in them, and its
constant inclination to the contrary.
But he farther argues, ' If we shall affirm, that the con-
trary bent or motions of his will, at other times, is a suffi-
cient proof, that when he did the evil we speak of, he did it
not with his whole will, or fulness of consent, in such a sense
is a distinguishing character betwixt men regenerate and un-
regenerate, we shall bring Herod, and Pilate, and probably
Judas himself, into the list of men reoenerate, with a thou-
sand more whom the Scripture knows not, under any such
name or relation; viz. all those whose judgments and con-
sciences stand against the evil of the ways and practices
wherein they walk.'
And this he proves at large to the end of the section, in
the instance of Herod and Pilate proceeding against their
own judgments and consciences, in the killing of John and
of our Saviour.
Ans. First, We do not only assert a contrary bent and
inclination in the wills of believers at other times, but also
that in and under the prevalency of indwelling sin, there is
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 151
in them an I that doth it not, and a not-willing it, from a
principle, though, by reason of the present prevalency of the
other, its actings and stirrings are not so sensibly perceived.
So that though they prevail not to the total prevention of
the will, from exerting the act of sin, yet they prevail to the
impairing, weakening, and making remiss, its consent there-
unto.
Secondly, The residue of this paragraph is intolerably
■sophistical, confounding the renitency of the inward man,
the principle of grace that is in the wills of believers, with
the convictions of the judgments and consciences of unre-
generate persons, and their striving against sin on that ac-
count. The judgments and consciences of wicked men, tell
them what they ought to do, and what they ought not to do,
without respect to the principle in their wills that is predo-
minant. But the apostle mentions the actings of the will
itself, from his own regenerate principle. We wholly deny
ihat any unregenerate man hath any vital principle in his
will not consenting to sin, whatever the dictates of his judg-
ment and conscience may be ; or how effectual soever to
prevail unto an abstinence from sin. To discover the dif-
ferences that are between the contest that is between the
wills in unregenerate men wholly set upon sin on the one
liand, and their judgments and consciences enlightened to
an apprehension and approving of better things on the other,
and the contest that is between the flesh and Spirit lusting
to contrary things in the same will, as it is in regenerate
men, is a common place ; that I shall not go forth unto. We
grant, then, that in unregenerate men there may be, there is,
and was in some degree perhaps in Herod, in Pilate, a con-
viction of conscience and judgment, that the things they do
are evil ; but say withal, that all this being foreign to their
wills, it hinders not but that they sin with the full uncon*
trolled consent of their wills, which are at perfect liberty,
or rather in perfect bondage vinto sin. That the Spirit should
lust against the flesh, and the flesh against the Spirit, both
in the same will (as it appears they do. Gal. v. 1 9 — 23. for the
fruits that they both bring forth, as acts of the will), in any un-
regenerate man, we deny ; and this is that, and not the for-
mer, which abates and takes off" from the will's consent to sin.
He concludes the whole; 'And to the passage of the
152 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
apostle, mentioned Rom. vii. I answer farther, that when he
saith, The evil which I would not, that do I, he doth not
speak of what he always and in all cases did, much less of
what was possible for him to do, but of what he did ordina-
rily and frequently, or of what was very incident unto him,
through the infirmity of the flesh, viz. throug,h inconside-
rateness and anticipation by temptations to do such things,
which when he was in a watchful and considerate posture,
and from under the malignant influence of a temptation, he
was altoffether averse unto : now what a man doth ordina-
rily is one thing, and what he doth sometimes and in some
particular cases, especially what it is possible for him to do,
is another. That true believers, whilst such, ordinarily sin
not upon worse terms, than those mentioned by the apostle
concerning his sinning, I easily grant ; but it no ways fol-
loweth from hence, that therefore they never sin upon other
terms, much less that it is impossible that they should sin
upon others ; and thus we see all things thoroughly and im-
partially argued, and debated to and fro, that even true be-
lievers themselves, as well as others, may do those works of
the flesh, which exclude from the kingdom of God, and that,
in respect thereof, they are subject to this exclusion as well
as other men.'
The sum of this part of the reply is, that what Paul
speaks is true, of the ordinary course of believers, but not
of extraordinary surprisals ; this seems, I say, to be the ten-
dency of it, though the direct sense of the whole is not so
obvious to me : by that expression, 'the evil that I would not,
that I do,' you intend either the expression of ' he would not/
or 'that he did ;' if the latter, then you say he did not sin or-
dinarily and frequently, but only upon surprisals, which is
freely granted, but is not at all to your purpose, but ra-
ther much against it. If you attend that part of it, which
holds out its renitency against the evil he did, in the expres-
sion of ' I would not,' then you say, it was not ordinary with
the apostle to nill the evil that he did, but in case of sur-
prisal to sin, which I believe is not intended; for is it cre-
dible, that any one should think that, in the ordinary course
of a man's walking, there should be no opposition made to
sin, the falling whereinto men are liable, but upon surprisals
and anticipationsby temptation, as it is phrased, there should.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 153
Nor is it on the other side that he intends the things that he
did ordinarily, but was surprised by temptation ; then it might
be otherwise. But, first, is a saint to be supposed to sin or-
dinarily, to sin not prevailed on by temptation? is not all sin
from temptation ? do they sin actually but upon the surpri-
sal of temptation? To impose this upon the apostle, that he
should say, Truly for the most part, or in my ordinary walk-
ing, I do not sin, but withal, I will it not, but when I am sur-
prised with temptations, then it is otherwise with me, there
is no renitency in my will to sin, is doubtless to wrong him;
he doth not limit his not willing of the evil he did to any
consideration whatever, but speaks it generally-, as the con-
stant state and condition of things with him.
Secondly, In the beginning of this section, the nilling of
sin was antecedent to the sin : here, it is something that
may be allowed in ordinary cases, but not at all in extraor-
dinary ; so that these two expositions put together amount
to thus much. Ordinarily the opostle. "^iitecedent to any
sinning before the lusting of the Spirit cei'.sed, did not will
the thing that he did, which was evil, but in case of tempta-
tion it was not so ; that is, antecedently to his acting of that
which was evil, he had no opposition in the inward man unto
it, nor lusting of the Spirit against it, which how it can be
made good against him, whose heart is upright, and who
hates every evil way, I know not.
Thirdly, It is confessed, that ordinarily believers sin at
no worse a rate than that expressed by the apostle ; but what
doth that contain? It would not be referred to their doing
of sins; then you grant that which all this while you have
endeavoured to oppose, and are reconciled to your own con-
tradiction in the first evidence, sin cannot ordinarily or ex-
traordinarily be committed but by an act of the will, and yet
ordinarily there is a dissent of the will also thereunto. If
you adhere to your other former interpretation, that the
willins: aoainst sin committed, is antecedent to the commit-
ment of it, and laid asleep before the perpetration of any
sin, then this also is imposed on you, that there are sins
whereunto they may be surprised by temptations, that, an-
tecedently to the commitment of them, they do not, not-will ;
that as to them, 'the Spirit lusteth not against the flesh ;'
which is notoriously false ; for the flesh lusteth against the
154 DOCTiuxE or tmi: saints' perseveraxce
Spirit and all the ways of it, and all the fruits thereof, and
the Spirit lusteth against the flesh, with all its ways and
fruits.
Fourthly, It appears then that this being the description
of a regenerate man, which the apostle gives, as to indwell-
ing sin, and all the fruits thereof, that it is most ridiculous
to exempt his frame in respect of such sins as they may fall
into by surprisals of temptations, from this description of
him, and so to frame this distinction to the apostle's general
rule, that it holds in cases ordinary, but not in extraordinary,
when nothing in the whole context gives the least allowance
or continuance to such a limitation.
It appears then notwithstanding any thing oifered here
to the contrary, upon due consideration of it, that believers
sin not with their whole wills and full consents, at any time,
nor under the power of what temptation soever they may fall
for a season, and that because of the residence of this prin-
ciple of a contrary tendency unto sin in their wills, which is
always acting, either directly in inclining unto good, or in
taking off, or making remiss, the consent of the will to sin,
notwithstanding the prevalency of the principle opposite
thereunto, by its committing of sin.
And hence have we sufficient light for the weakenino- of
the argument proposed in the beginning of this chapter. For
though it is weak in its foundation (as shall be shewed), con-
cluding to what the saints may do, from what is forbidden
them to do, that prohibition being the ordinance of God
certainly to preserve them from it, yet taking it for granted
that they may fall into the sin intimated, yet seeing they do
it not customarily, not maliciously, not with the full and
whole consent of their wills, that there is a principle in them
still opposing sin, though at any time weakened by sin, and
the conclusion of that argument concerns them not. I say
then, first, to the major proposition, they who are in a ca-
pacity and possibility, that is, a universal possibility, not
only in respect of an internal principle, but of all outward
prohibiting causes, as the purpose and promise of God, of
perpetrating the works of the flesh, not of bringing forth
any fruits of the lusting of the flesh, which are in the best,
willingly and ordinarily with the full and whole consent of
their wills, in which sense alone such works of the flesh are
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 155
absolutely exclusive from the kingdom of heaven, they may
possibly fall out of the favour of God and into destruction.
This proposition being thus limited, and the terms of it
cleared, for to cause it to pass ; I absolutely deny the minor,
that true believers do, or can so sin ; that is, so bring forth
the works of the flesh, as to leave no room for the continu-
ance of mercy to them, according to the tenor of the cove-
nant of grace.
But now frame the proposition so, as the assumption
may comprise believers, and we shall quickly know what to
judge of it; 'Those who are in a capacity or possibility of
falling into such sins, as deserve rejection from God, or of
perpetrating works of the flesh, though they do so overborne
by the power of temptation, nilling the things they do, not
alaiding in their sins, may fall totally and finally from God :
but believers may so do.' As the matter is thus stated, the
assumption may be allowed to pass upon believers, but we
absolutely deny the major proposition in the sense wherein
it is urged. I shall only add, that when we deny that be-
lievers can possibly fall away, it is not any absolute impos-
sibility we intend, nor an impossibility with respect to any
principle in them, only that in and from itself is not pe-
rishable, nor an impossibility in respect of the manner of
their acting, but such a one as, principally respecting the
outward removing cause of such an actual defection, will in-
fallibly prevent the event of it. And thus is the cloud raised
by this fifth argument dispelled and scattered by the light
of the very first consideration of the difterence in sinning,
that is, between regenerate and unregenerate men : so that
it will be an easy thing to remove and take away what after-
ward is insisted on for the reinforcement and confirmation of
the several propositions of it.
The major proposition he confirms from Gal. v. 21. Eph.
V. 5, 6. 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. all affirming, that neither whore-
mongers, nor adulterers, nor idolaters, nor the like, have any
inheritance in the kingdom of God, or can be saved. That the
intendment of the apostle is concerning them, who live in a
course of such sins, who sin with their whole wills, and from
an evil root, with whose sap they are wholly leavened and
tainted throughout, not them who, through the strength of
temptation, and the surprisals of it, not without the renitency
156 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
in their wills, unto all sin, any sin, the sin wherewith they
are overtaken, may possibly fall into any such sin (as did
David and Peter), was before declared, and in that sense we
grant the proposition.
For the proof of the minor proposition, which should be.
that believers may perpetrate the work of the flesh, in the
sense intended in the places of Scripture before mentioned,
he insists on two things. First, The direction of those Scrip-
tures unto believers. Secondly, The experience of the ways
of such persons, that is, of believers. The apostle tells be-
lievers, that they who commit such and such things, with
such and such circumstances in their commitment, cannot
be saved ; therefore, believers may commit those sins in the
manner intended. What hath been said before of the use of
threatenings, and denunciations of judgments on impenitent
sinners, in respect of believers, will givea sufiicient account
(if there be need of any) for our denial of this consequence;
and for the second, that the experience of such men's ways
and walking evinceth it; it is a plain begging of the thing
under debate, and an assuming of that which was proposed
to be proved, a thing unjustly charged by him on his adver-
saries, as though they should confess, that believers might
sin to the extent of the lines drawn out in the places of
Scripture mentioned, and yet not lose their faith, when, be-
cause they cannot lose their faith, they deny that they can
sin to that compass of excess and riot intimated.
I cannot see, then, to what end and purpose the whole
ensuing discourse, from the beginning of this argument to
the end of the 21st sect. is. It is acknowledged that all those
places do concern believers ; the intendment of the Holy
Ghost in them being to discover to them, the nature of the sin
specified, and the end of the committing of them, in the
way intended, and that God purposes to proceed according
to the importance of what is threatened to those sins, so
committed, with all that do them, that so they may walk
watchfully and carefully, avoiding not only those things
themselves, but all the ways and means leading to them
(though if any one of them sin any of those sins without
the deadly attendants of them mentioned in Scripture, they
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous);
but that from thence it may be inferred, that believers may.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 157
and some do sin, and that God intends, as it is expressed,
to destroy them if they so do, when he hath promised they
shall never do so, is a very weak and ridiculous argumenta-
tion : they are a medium of acquainting them with the de-
sert of sin, the tenor of the law to them that are under it,
and the riches of grace in their deliverance.
It is true, unbelievers are, as you say, * in our judgment'
(and I wonder what yours is in the case), ' in a state of exclu-
sion from the kingdom of God, whether they perpetrate the
works of the flesh mentioned or no :' unbelief is in our judg-
ment, sufficient of itself to exclude any one from the king-
dom of God. But yet withal in our judgment (and we de-
sire to know yours) it is impossible that unbelievers (we mean
those who are adults) should not perpetrate the same evils
mentioned, or others of the same import, all the 'thoughts
and imaginations of their hearts being evil, and that con-
tinually,' and thereupon be farther exposed to the wrath of
God which is revealed against all that do evil. If therefore
the discovery of a man's desperate condition, that he may
be stirred up to labour and strive for a deliverance from it,
doth concern him, then these and the like passages do pro-
perly and primarily concern unbelievers, whose state with
the issue of it, is particularly described therein. And to
say (as our author doth) * that it is a vain thing for the Spirit
of God to threaten wrath to men upon the committing of
sin, if by unbelief they are exposed antecedently to that
wrath,' is to question the wisdom of him with whom (what-
ever become of us poor worms) he cannot contend. He
hath told us, that all men by nature are * children of wrath
and unclean,' so far as not to be able to enter into the king-
dom of heaven, unless they be washed and born again,and yet
we hope, without the least deficiency in wisdom, hath farther
revealed his wrath from heaven, against the ensuing ungod-
liness that is committed by these children of wrath, to be ex-
ecuted in tribulation and anguish against every soul that so
doth evil. Not to detain the reader, what hath been said,
and shall farther be argued, concerning the difference that
is between believers and unbelievers in their sinning, with
that also which hath been spoken of the concernment of be-
lievers, in these and the like passages of Scripture, suffi-
ciently arguing that no such inference as is made for the con-
158 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXTS' PERSEVERAXCE
firmation of the assumption of tlie argument under consi-
deration according to Mr. Goodwin's thoughts and appre-
hensions of it, can possibly be drawn out from them.
Sect. 22. is a pretty pageant, and by the reader's favour
I shall shew it him once more. ' If it be objected that true
believers have a promise from God that they shall never lose
their faith, I answer, first, That this hath oft been said, but
never so much as once proved. Secondly, Upon examination
of those Scriptures wherein such promises of God are pre-
tended to reside, or to be found, we find no such thing iri
them, we find indeed many promises of their perseverance,
but all of them conditional, and such whose performance in
respect of actual and complete perseverance, is suspended
upon the diligent and careful use of means by men to per-
severe. And lastly, to affirm that true believers can by no
commission of sin or sins whatsoever, how frequently soever
reiterated, how long continued in soever, ever make ship-
wreck of their faith or fall away from the grace and favour
of God so as to perish, what is it but to provoke the flesh
to an outrageousness in sinning, and to encourage that which
remains of the old man in them to bestir itself in all ways of
unriohteousness ? And doubtless the brino-ing of that doc-
trine hath been the casting of a snare upon the world, and
hath caused many, whose feet God hath guided into ways
of peace, to adventure so far into desperateness of sinning,
that, through the just judgment of God, their hearts never
served them to return.'
Ana. First, The foundation of this whole discourse, is a
supposal of promises of preserving believers in their faith,
upon the ridiculous supposition after mentioned, to be as-
serted by the doctrine of the saints' perseverance, and the
defenders of it, which Mr. Goodwin knows full well to be
far otherwise.
Secondly, Ithath sufficiently been proved, that believers
have a promise, yea many promises, to be kept by the power
pf God, from all and any such sin, or any such circumstance
of sin, or continuance in sin, as is wholly inconsistent with
believing, and that therefore they shall be preserved in be-
lieving.
Thirdly, Upon our calling the examination of the proofs
of this assertion to an account, we have found them to be
tXPLAlXED AND CONFIRMED. 159^
made up of trivial exceptions and sophistical suppositions,
confident beggings, and cravings of the things under con-
test and debate (all the endeavours to prove the promises
of perseverance to be conditional, having also involved in
them an absolute contradiction to the truth and to them-
selves), no way sufficient to evince, that the promises and
work of God's grace are suspended, upon any conditions in
men whatsoever.
And, fourthly. We say, that the intrusion of this vain
hypothesis, that believers should continue so, under the
consideration here intimated by you of sin, when the main
of the doctrine contended for, consists in a full and plain
denial that they can, or shall, fall under them (according
to the import of 1 John iii. 9. immediately to be insisted
on, being preserved by the Spirit and grace of him who so
works his law in their hearts, that they shall never depart
from him), is the great engine you have used in all your at-
tempts against it, being indeed a mere begging of the thing
in question.
? Fifthly, That there is nothing in this doctrine, in the
least, suited to turn aside the saints of God from the holy
commandment, but that, on the contrary, it is of an excel-
lent usefulness, and effectual influence for the promotion of
all manner of godliness, in those that are truly saints, how-
soever any man may abuse it (as any other discovery of the
grace of God), turning it into lasciviousness, hath been de-
clared : what use hath been made of the contrary doctrine
in the world, we have hitherto had experience ; only in the
Pelagians, Papists, Socinians, and Arminians, and with what
fruits of it they have abounded, the church of God doth
partly know : what it is like to bring forth, being now trans-
lated into another soil, or rather, having won over to it
men sometimes of another profession, is somewhat, though
not altogether, yet in obeyance.
Let us then, with the apostle, having proceeded thus witli
Mr. Goodwin, that a foundation may be the better laid, for
the removal of what he farther adds, proceed to consider
the progress of sin, and to remark from thence the differ-
ence that is between regenerate and unregenerate men i»
their sinning.
The second thing proposed in the apostle's discourse of
160 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
the rise and progress of sin, is the general way that lust
proceedeth in, for the bringing of it forth, and that is temp-
tation ; ' Every one is tempted of his own lust :' this is the
general way that lust proceeds in, for the production of ac-
tual sin ; it tempts, and he in whom it is, is tempted ; there
is a temptation unto sin only, and a temptation unto sin by
sin ; the first is no sin in him that is so tempted ; our Sa-
viour was so tempted ; * he was tempted of the devil;' Matt.
iv. 1. * He was in all points tempted like as we are, without
sin :' that his temptations were unto sin, is apparent from
the story of them ; * but the prince of this world coming
had nothing in him ;' John xiv. 30. found nothing in him
to answer and close with his temptations ; and therefore,
though he was tempted, yet was he without sin. Now
though this sort of temptations from Satan, are not originally
our sins, but his, yet there being tinder in our souls that
kindles more or less, in and upon every injection of his fiery
darts, there being something in us to meet many, if not all, of
his temptations, they prove, in some measure, in the issue,
to be ours : indeed Satan sometimes ventures upon us, in
things wherein he hath doubtless small hope of any concur-
rence, and so seems rather to aim at our disquiet, than our
sins ; as in those whom he perplexes with hard and blas-
phemous thoug! , of Goc, . thin , so contradictory to the
very principles not of grace only, but of that whereby we are
men, that it is utterly impossible there should be any assent
of the soul thereunto ; to think of God, as God, is to think
of him every thing that is good, pure, great, excellent, in-
comprehensible in all perfection : now at the same time, to
have any apprehensions of a direct contradictory importance,
the mind of man is not capable. Were it not for the unbe-
lief, causeless fears, and discontentments, that in many do
ensue upon temptations of this nature, which are conse-
quents, and not effects of it, Satan might keep this dart in
his own forge, for any mischief he is like to do with it. The
apostle speaks here of temptations by sin as well as unto
sin; and these are men's sins, as well as their temptations;
they are temptations, as tending to farther evil ; they are
sins, as being irregular and devious from the rule. Now this
tempting of lust compriseth two things.
First, The general active inclination of the heart unto
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 161
sin, though not fixed as unto any particular act, or way of
sin; the ' motus primo primi ;' of this you have that testi-
mony of God concerning man, in the state of nature ; Gen.
vi- 5. ' Every figment of the thought of his heart, is only
evil every day;' the figment or imagination of the thoughts,
is the very root of them ; their general moulding, or active
preparing of the mind, for the exerting of them ; so 1 Chron.
xxviii. 9. ' God understandeth all the imaginations of the
thoughts :' the figment of them ; the next disposition of
the soul unto them; and 2 Chron. xxix. 19. 'Keep this for
ever in the imagination of the thoughts of their hearts,' or
keep their hearts in a continual framing posture and condi-
tion, of such good thoughts. This, I say, is the first way of
lust's, temptation ; it makes a mint of the heart, to frame
readily all manner of evil desires and thoughts, that they
may as our Saviour speaks ' proceed out of the heart ;' Matt.
XV. 19. Their actual fixing on any object, is their pro-
ceeding, antecedent whereunto they are framed and formed
in the heart ; lust actually disposeth, inclines, bends, the
heart to things suitable to itself, or the corrupt habitual
principle which hath its residence in us.
Secondly, The actual tumultuating of lust, and working
with all its power and policy, in stirring up, provoking to,
and drawing out, thoughts and contrivances of sin, with de-
light and complacency in inconceivable variety; the seve-
ral degrees of its progress herein being afterward described.
In the first of these there is no small diflTerence between
regenerate and unregenerate persons, and that in these two
things.
First, In its universality. In unregenerate men, ' every
figment of their heartis only evil and that every day ;' there
is a universality of actings expressed positively, and exclu-
sively, to any actings of another kind; 'every figment of
their heart is only evil;' and of time, 'every day ;' whatever
good they seem to do, or do, whatever duties they perform,
that in them all, which is the proper figment of their heart,
is only evil. On this account, take any duty they do, any
work they perform, and weigh it in the balance, and it will
be found in respect of principles, and circumstances, or aims,
to be wholly evil ; that indeed there is nothing in it that
is acceptable to God ; and their hearts are casting, minting,
VOL, VII. M
1G2 DOCTRINE OT THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
and coining sin, all the day long. With believers it is not
so, there is also a good treasure in their hearts, from whence
they bring out good things; there is a good root in them
that bears good fruit: though they are, or may be overtaken
with many sins, yea with great sins, yet lust doth not tempt
them as it doth unregenerate men, with a perpetual conti-
nual active inclination unto evil, even some way or other in
all the good they do. The Spirit is in them, and will, and
doth, in what state soever they are, dispose their hearts to
faith, love, meekness, and actuates those graces, at least in
the elicit acts of the will ; for ' a good tree will bring forth
good fruit.' Never any believer is or was so deserted of God,
or did so forsake God, as that every ' figment of his heart
should be evil only, and that continually;' that no one act
of sin can possibly expel his habit of grace, hath been for-
merly shewed ; neither is he ever cast into such a condition,
but from the good principle that is in him. There is a pant-
ing after God, longing for his salvation with more or less efti-
cacy; the spark is warm and glowing, though under ashes.
Secondly, In respect of pov/er. Lust tempts in unrege-
nerate men out of an absolute uncontrollable dominion, and
that with a morally irresistible efficacy; all its dominion,
as hath been shewed, and very much of its strength is lost
in believers ; this is the intendment of the apostle's dis-
course Rom, vi. concerning the crucifying of sin, by the
death of Christ. The power, strength, vigour, and efficacy,
of it, is so far abated, weakened, mortified, that it cannot so
effectually impel unto sin, as it doth Avhen it is in perfect
life and strength.
But you will say then. If lust be thus weakened in be-
lievers, more than in others, how comes it to pass, that they
do at any time fall into such great and heinous sins, as some-
times they do, and have done? Will not this argue them to
be even worse than unregenerate persons, seeing they fall
into sin upon easier terms, and with less violence of impulse
from indwelling sin than they ?
Ans. First, The examples of believers falling into great
sins, are rare, and such as by no means are to be accommo-
dated to their state, in their ordinary walking with God. It
is true there are examples of such falls recorded in the Scrip-
ture, that they might light lie as buoys to all generations, to
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 163
caution men of their danger, when the waves of temptation
arise, to shew what is in man, in the best of men, to keep
all the saints of God humble, self-empty, and in a continual
dependance on him, in whom are all their springs, from whom
are all their supplies ; but as they are mostly all Old Testa-
ment examples, before grace for grace was given out by
Jesus Christ, so they are by no means farther to be urged,
nor are, but only to shew that it is possible that God can
keep alive the root, when the tree is cut down to the ground ;
and cause it to bud again by the scent of the water of his
Spirit, flowing towards it.
Secondly, That believers fall not into great sins at any
time, by the mere strength of indwelling sin, unless it be in
conjunction with some violent outward temptation, exceed-
ingly surprising them, either by weakening all ways and
means whereby the principle of grace should exert itself,
as in the case of Peter j or by sudden heightening of their
corruption by some overpowering objects, attended with all
circumstances of prevalency, not without God's withholding
his special grace in an eminent manner, for ends best known
to himself, as in the case of David. Hence it is, that even in
such sins, we say, they sin out of infirmity, that is, not out of
prepense deliberation as to sin ; not out of malice, not out of
love to, or delight in sin ; but merely through want of
strength, when overborn by the power of temptations.
This Mr. Goodwin frames as an objection to himself, in
the pursuit of the vindication of the argument under consi-
derations ; sect. 23.
' Others plead that there is no reason to conceive that
true believers, though they perpetrate the works of the flesh,
should be excluded from the kingdom of heaven upon this
account; because when they sin in this kind, they sin out
of infirmity, and not out of malice.'
Alls. I was not to choose what objections Mr. Goodwin
should answer, nor had the framing of them which he chose
to deal withal; and, therefore, must be contented with them,
as he is pleased to afford them to us ; only if I may be al-
lowed to speak in this case, and I know I have the consent
of many concerned in it, I should somewhat otherwise frame
this objection or answer; being partly persuaded, that Mr.
Goodwin did not find it, but framed it himself, into the shape
M 2
164 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
wherein it here appears. I say then, that the saints of God
sin out of infirmity only, not maliciously, nor dedita opera in
cool blood, nor with their whole hearts, but purely upon the
account of the weakness of their graces, being overpowered
by the strength of temptation, and therefore cannot so per-
petrate the works of the flesh, and in such away as must ac-
cording to the tenor of the covenant wherein they walk with
God, not only deserve rejection and damnation, but also be
absolutely and indispensably exclusive of them, from the
kingdom of God. What Mr. Goodwin hath drawn forth to
take off, in any measure, the truth of this assertion, shall be
considered. He says then,
' To say that true believers, or any other men do perpetrate
the works of the flesh, out of infirmity, involves a contradic-
tion : for to do the works of the flesh, implies the dominion
of the flesh in the doers of them, which in sins of infirmity
hath no place ; the apostle clearly insinuates the nature of
sins of infirmity in that to the Galatians ; Beloved if any man
be overtaken with a fault (TrpoXr](j)6ri), be prevented, or taken
at unawares. When a man's foot is taken in the snare of a
temptation, only through a defect of that spiritual watch-
fulness over himself and his ways which he ought to keep
constantly, and so sinneth contrary to the habitual and
standing frame of his heart, this man sinneth out of infir-
mity ; but he that thus sinneth cannot in Scripture phrase
be said either to walk, or to live according to the flesh, or
to do the works of the flesh, or to do the lusts or desires of
the flesh, because none of these are any where ascribed unto,
or charged upon, true believers, but only upon such persons
who are enemies unto God, and children of death.'
j4ns. This being the substance of all that is spoken to the
business in hand, I have transcribed it at large, that with its
answer it may at once lie under the reader's view. I say
then,
First, We give this reason that believers, 'cannot perpe-
trate the works of the flesh' in the sense contended about, be-
cause they sin out of infirmity, and do not say that they so
'perpetrate the works of the flesh out of infirmity.' But if by
perpetrating the works of the flesh, you intend only the bring-
ing forth at any time, or under any temptation whatsoever, any
fruits of the flesh, such as every sin is, that this may not be
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 165
done out of infirmity, or that it involves a contradiction to
say so, is indeed not to know what you say, to contradict
yourself, and to deny that there be any sins of infirmity at
all, which that there are you granted in the words foregoing,
and describe the nature of it in the words following. They
doubtless in whom the flesh always lusteth against the Spirit
are sometimes led away and enticed by their own lusts, so
as to bring forth the fruits of it.
Secondly, If 'to do the works of the flesh/ imports with
you, as indeed in itself it doth, the predominancy and do-
minion of the flesh in them that do the works thereof, we
wholly deny that believers can so do the works of the flesh;
as upon other reasons, so partly because they sin out of in-
firmity, which sufficiently argues that the flesh hath not the
dominion in them ; for then they should not through infir-
mity be captivated to it, but should willingly yield up their
* members, as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.'
Thirdly, The description you give of a sin of infirmity
from Gal. vi. 1. is that alone which we acknowledge may
befall believers, thouo;h it hath sometimes befallen them in
greater sins. It is evident from hence, that a sin becometh
a sin of infirmity, not from the nature of it, but from the man-
ner of men's falling into it. The greatest actual sin, may be
a sin of infirmity, and the least, a sin of presumption. It is
possible a believer may be overtaken, or rather surprised,
with any sin, so he be overtaken or surprised. A surprisal
into sin through the power of temptation, subtilty of Satan,
strength of indwelling sin, contrary to the habitual standing
frame of the heart (not always neither through a defect of
watchfulness), is all that we grant a believer may be liable
to : and so upon Mr. Goodwin's confession, he sins only out
of infirmity ; such sins being not exclusive of the love and
favour of God. And, therefore.
Fourthly, We say that true believers cannot be said to
walk 'according to the flesh,' to do the ' works of the flesh,' to
do the 'lusts and desires of the flesh,' which the Holy Ghost
so cautions them against; which, as Mr. Goodwin observes,
are none of them charged upon true believers, but only such
persons as are enemies of God, and children of wrath; so
that those expressions hold out to believers only what they
166 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
ought to avoid in the use of the means which God graciously
affords them, and do not discover any thing of the will of
God, that he will suffer them, contrary to his many faithful
promises, to fall into them. And so the close of this dis-
course is contrary to the beginning, Mr. Goodwin granting
that true believers cannot fall into these sins, but only such
as are enemies to God ; and yet he hath no way to prove
that true believers may cease to be so, but because they may
fall into these sins, which that they may do, he here emi-
nently denies. Wherefore he adds :
'If by sinning out of malice they mean sinning with de-
liberation, with plotting, and contriving the methods and
means of their sinning ; sinning against judgment, against
the dictates of conscience (and what they should mean by
sinning out of malice but sinning upon such terms as these
I understand not), certain it is that true believers may so sin
out of malice, or at least such as were true believers before
such sinning, and this our adversaries themselves confess.'
Ans. All this falls heavy on the shoulders (as it is sup-
posed) of poor David, and yet we think it evident, that God
'took not his Holy Spirit from him,' but that his covenant
continued with him, ' ordered in all things and sure,' and
that 'sin had not dominion over him.' The reasons of this
persuasion of ours concerning him, shall farther be insisted
on, when we come to the consideration of his case in par-
ticular; in the mean time I confess the dreadful falls of some
of the saints of God, are rather to be bcAvailed than agora-
vated ; and the riches of God's grace in their recovery, to be
admired than searched into. Yet we say.
First, That no one believer whatever in the world, upon
any temptation whatever, did fall into any sin of malice, that
is, accompanied with any hjitred of God, or despite of his
grace, or whole delight of his will in the sin, whereunto he
was by temptation for a season captivated ; and though they
may fall into sin, against their judgments and dictates of
their consciences, as every sin whatever, that they have, or
may have knowledge of, or acquaintance with, in their own
hearts and ways, is ; yet this doth not make them to sin out
of malice ; for that would leave no distinction between sins
of infirmity, whcreinto men are surprised by temptation, and
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 167
of malice. Even sins of infirmity being in general and par-
ticular directly contrary to the dictates of their enlightened,
sanctified judgments and consciences. .
Secondly, For sinning ' with deliberation, plotting, and
contriving the methods and means of sinning' (the proof
whereof, that so they may do, will lie as was before ob-
served, on the instance of David), I say it being the will of
God for ends and purposes known to his infinite wisdom,
to give us, as to his fall, his dark side, and his sin to the
full, with the temptations wherewith he was at first sur-
prised ; and afterward violently hurried upon carnal reason-
ings and considerations of the state whereinto he had cast
himself, having lost his old friend and counsellor as to any
shines of his countenance for a season, not acquainting us
at all with the frame, and working, and striving of his
Spirit, in, and under that fall ; I shall not dare to draw his
case into a rule, that what he then did a believer now may
do, judging of his frame in doing of it, only by what is ex-
pressed. That believers may have morosam cogitationem, or
deliberation upon some sins, whereunto they are tempted,
upon the strength of indwelling sin, which may possibly so
overcome and prevail against the workings of grace for a
season, as to set the flesh at liberty to make contrivances to
fufil the lusts thereof, I say, many have granted, and I shall
not (for the sake of poor returning souls, whose backslidings
God hath promised to heal) deny ; but yet I say, all their
actings in this kind, are but like the desperate actings of a
man in a fever, who may have some kind of contrivance
with himself to do mischief (as I have known some myself),
and aim at opportunities for the accomplishment of it ; all
the faculties of their souls being discomposed, and rendered
unserviceable to them through their distemper ; through the
violence of temptation, and the tumultuating of lusts, the
whole new man may be for a season so shattered, and his
parts laid out of the way, as to such a due answering to
another, that the whole may be serviceable to the work of
faith (as a disordered army, wherein is all its fundamental
strength as well as when it is rallied in battalia, is altogether
unserviceable, until it be reduced to order), that sin taking
the opportunity to fill their corrupt part (as far as it is cor-
rupt) with its pleasure and desirableness, and so to set the
168 DOCTRINE OF THE SAlNTs' PERSEVERANCE
thoughts of it on work to continue means for its accom-
plishment. Now as through the goodness of their Father,
and supplies of grace, which through the covenant thereof,
they do receive, this distemper seizeth not believers but
rarely and extraordinarily, so it doth no way prove them to
sin with malice, or without hatred of, and opposition (secret
opposition, which may be as secret, as some inclinations to
sin are not known to ourselves) to, the things they do in and
imder that condition.
That which follows in this section being suited to the
apprehension of some particular men, though of great name
and esteem, accordino- to their worth and desert in the church
of God, as Ursin, Parseus, and the rest, about reigning sin;
wherein (as I have declared) my thoughts fall not in with
them, I shall not need to insist any longer upon it. Paraeus,
after all his aggravations of the sins of believers, yet adds
that they sin not (nor did David) ex contemptu Dei, but
through a preoccupation or surprisal of sin; which I believe
to be the persuasion of far the greatest number of saints in
the world, whatever Mr. Goodwin is pleased to think or
say to the contrary. Nor is their apprehension weakened by
Nathan's charging upon David, ' his despising of the com-
mandment of the Lord' in doingevil ; which, as it is virtually
done in every sin, and in great sins in an eminent manner,
so that it did amount indeed, not only to a consequential
but a formal voluntary contempt of God, Mr. Goodwin shall
never prove. A father often and severely chargeth upon
his son a despising of his commands, when he hath been
carried out to transgress it, when yet he knows his son ho-
nourethandreverenceth him in his heart, and is exceedingly
remote from any resolved contempt of him.
The close of all is a concession of the contra-remou-
strants at tlie Hague conference ; ' that believers might fall
into such sins, as that the church according to the command-
ment of Christ, must pronounce that they shall no longei'
abide in her communion, and that they shall have no part
in the kingdom of Christ;' which being made an argument
for the a))Ostacy of the saints, 1 shall consider how it is here
improved by Mr, Goodwin.
' Certainly,' saith he, ' their sense was, that true believers
may sin above the rate of those who sin out of infirmity.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 169
insomuch as there is no commandment of Christ, that any
church of his should eject such persons out of their commu-
nion, who sin out of infirmity only ; so that by the confession
of our adversaries themselves, even true believers may per-
petrate such sins, which are of a deeper demerit, than to be
numbered amongst sins of infirmity ; yea such sins, for which
the church of Christ, according to the commandment of
Christ, stands bound to judge them for ever excluded from
the kingdom of God without repentance; from whence it
undeniably follows, that they may commit such sins, whereby
their faith in Christ will be totally lost, because there is no
condemnation unto those that are by faith in Jesus Christ,
whether they repent or not, and therefore they that stand in
need of repentance, to give them a right and title to the
kingdom of God, are no sons of God by faith ; for were they
sons, they would be heirs also, and consequently have right
and title to the inheritance ; so that to pretend that howso-
ever the saints may fall into great and grievous sins, yet
they shall certainly be renewed again by repentance before
tliey die, though this be an assertion without any bottom on
reason or truth, yet doth it no ways oppose, but suppose
rather a possibility of the total defection of faith in true
believers.'
Ahs. First, That true believers may sin above the rate of
sins of infirmity, because they may so sin, as that according
to the appointment of Jesus Christ, they may be cast out of
a particular church, is not attempted to be proved. Doth Mr.
Goodwin think none may be excommunicated but such as
have sinned themselves out of the state of grace ? That a man
may through infirmity, fall into some such sin, as for it to
be amoved from a church society (that amotion being an
ordinance of Christ, for his recovery from that sin), I know
not that it can be reasonably questioned. So that by our
confession, that true believers may so sin, as to be rio-hte-
ously cast out of the external visible society of a particular
church, doth no way enforce us to acknowledge that they
may sin above the rate of them, who are overtaken with, or
surprised in sin, upon the account of their weakness or in-
firmity.
Secondly, The church of Christ in rejecting of one from
its society, according to the appointment of Jesus Christ, is
170 j)octiii:ne of the saiXts' perse vera xce
so fur from being obliged to Judge any one for ever excluded
from the kingdom of God ; that they do so reject a man,
that he may never be excluded from that kingdom. It is true,
he may be ecclesiastically and declaratively excluded from
the visible kingdom of God, and his right and title to the
outward administration of the good things thereof; but that
such a one is, and must be thought to be, properly and really
excluded from his interest in the love of God, and grace of
the covenant (being still by the appointment of God, and
command of Christ, left under the power of an ordinance,
annexed by him), to the administration of that covenant, it
doth not follow.
Thirdly, The non-restoration of persons cast out of com-
munion by the church, to their place in the kingdom of God,
but upon repentance, holds proportion with what was spoken
before upon exclusion. The repentance intended is such as
is necessary for the satisfaction of the church, as to its ex-
pressness and being known ; yet we grant withal, that all
sins whatever without repentance, in that kind and degree,
that is appointed and accepted of God, are exclusive of the
kingdom of God; and we do much wonder that Mr. Good-
win to the text, Rom. viii. 1. should add, 'whether they re-
pent or not' which is not only beyond the sense of what
went before, but directly contrary to that which follows after,
' that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.' Not to re-
pent of sin, is doubtless to 'walk after the flesh,' and no one
of them who are freed from condemnation in Christ, doth
ffood and sinneth not : the words we confess, are not the
condition in the intention of God, on which their non-con-
demnation is suspended, but yet they are a description in-
fallible of them, who through grace are made partakers of it.
We say then, that believers may so fall, as that being on that
account rejected from the communion of the church, so as
not to be restored, but upon the evidence of their repentance
(and wc say that repentance is required for all sins, or men
cannot be saved, wondering what Mr. Goodwin, according
to his principles intends by the addition to the text of Rom.
viii. 1. unless it be, that no man stands in need of repentance,
unless he have cast off" all faith and interest in God ; a most
anti-evangelical assertion), and yet not commit such sins, as
whereby their faith must needs be wholly lost.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 171
Fourthly, There is a twofold right and title to the king-
dom of God; a right and title by the profession of a true
faith to the external kingdom of God, in regard of its out-
ward administration, and a right and title to the eternal
kingdom of God by the possession of a true faith in Christ.
The former, as it is taken for jus in re, believers may loose for
a season ; though they may not in respect of a remote, ori-
ginal, fundamental root which abides ; the latter they never
loose, nor forfeit: we say also that repentance for sin being
a thing promised of God, for those that come to him in Christ,
upon the account of the engagement of his grace for the
perseverance of believers ; all such fallers into sin, shall cer-
tainly return to the Lord by repentance, who heals their
backslidings, which Mr, Goodwin hath not been able to dis-
prove ; of whose arguments, and his endeavours to vindicate
them from exceptions, this is the chief.
But yet there being two or three things that Mr. Good-
win is pleased to add to what went before, as objections
against his doctrine in general, though not of this last argu-
ment's concernment, any more than of any others he makes
use of, because there are in them considerations of good ad-
vantage to the truth in hand, I shall a little insist upon them,
before I proceed with my intended discourse.
The first is, that the 'doctrine of the saints' apostacy,
maimeth or dismembereth the body of Christ, and brings in
an uncouth and unseemly interchange of members between
Christ and the soul ;' which howsoever slighted by Mr. Good-
win, is a plea not of the least importance in the case in hand.
The body of Christ intended, is that mystical and spiritual,
not that political and visible ; his body in respect of the real
union of every member of it, unto him as the head described
by the apostle in its relation unto him ; Eph. iv. 15, 16. *It
grows up unto him in all things which is the head, even
Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and
compacted, by that which every joint supplieth according to
the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh
increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love :' so
also, Col. ii. 19. The body we intend, whereof Christ is the
head, is that, not only in a political sense, as the supreme
governor of it, but in a spiritual, according to the analogy
of a head natural, from whence life and all influence of it
172 DOCTRINE OJ'- 'J'HE SAINTs" P KKSEVERANCE
unto the members do flow. Of this body, some are in their
spirits already consummated, and made perfect in heaven ;
some are as yet pursuing their warfare in all parts of the
world, pressing forward to the mark of the high-calling set
before them. Now that any member of his body, * bone of
the bone, flesh of the flesh of Christ,' given him to make up
his fulness, and mystical perfection jointed unto him, washed
in his blood and loved by him, according to the love and
care of a head to its members, should be plucked ofl", to be
cast into the fire ; and after it hath so closely and vitally been
admitted into the participation of his fulness and increase,
being united to him, become a child of the devil, an enemy
to him, and sometimes fellow-members, so as to hate his
head, and to be hated of his head (when yet no man ever
yet hated his own flesh), this we suppose no way to answer
that inexpressibly intense love, which the Lord Jesus bears
towards his members, and to be exceedingly derogatory to
his honour and glory, in reference with his dealing to Satan,
the great enemy of his kingdom. But to this Mr. Goodwin
answers :
First, ' For dismembering the body of Christ, is it not
the law of Christ himself in every particular church or body
of his, that as any of their members putrify and discover
themselves to be rotten and corrupt, they should be cut off
by the spiritual sword of excommunication, and doth not
such a dismembering as this, rather tend to the honouring
and adorning the body of Christ, than any ways to maim or
deform it? And for such a dismembering of the body of
Christ which the doctrine in hand supposeth to be causable
by the members themselves, by the voluntary disfaithing of
themselves through sin and wickedness ; neither is tlie per-
mission of this, upon such terms as it is permitted, either
unworthy Christ or inconvenient to the body itself.' Keply,
First, That there is no argument will tolerably arise from
what is practicable and comely in a visible ecclesiastical
body of Christ, to the mystical spiritual body ; that is, from
a particular visible to the catholic church of Christ. As to
the matter in hand, this is evident by the light of this single
consideration, tliat in such an ecclesiastical body of Christ,
there are always or may be, and Christ himself in the rules
and laws that he hath given for the government thereof did
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRJJED. 173
suppose that there always would be, good and bad, true
saints and empty professors ; whereas in the body whereof
we treat, there is no soul actually instated, but who is ac-
tually united to the head, by the inhabitation of the same
Spirit. There never was nor shall to eternity any dead
member be of that body. They are all living stones, built
upon him who is the foundation. Now surely this is an in-
ference attended with darkness to be felt, because it may be
comely for those to whom the administration of ordinances
in the visible church of Christ is committed, to cut ofFa dead
member from the membership which he holds by his confes-
sion of the faith, when he discovers himself not to answer
the confession he hath made in his walking and conversa-
tion. Therefore, Christ himself doth cut off, or one way
or other, loose any living members of his body mystical,
and actually by faith instated in the unity of his body with
him. And if it shall be objected that even living members,
and such as are truly so, may yet for and at a season, be cut
off from a visible particular body of Christ ; I answer,
1. It is true, they may so, in respect of their ordinary
present right to tlie enjoyment of ordinances, not in respect
of their remote fundamental right that still abides.
2. They are so, or may be so, for their amendment, not
for their destruction. That separation for a season being an
expression of as much love and tenderness to them in Christ,
as his joining of them to the body was from whence they are
so separated. And,
3. This makes not at all to the impairing of the true com-
pleteness of the mystical body of Christ and the perfection
of its parts ; for as in particular visible bodies of Christ
there may be, and are, dead members which have no place
in the body, but are as excrescencies in the vine, and yet
the body is not rendered monstrous by them ; so a true
member may be removed and the body not to be maimed in
the least : the member, though perhaps from any such vi-
sible body, for a season, and yet the true spiritual sick and
pining, continuing a member thereof still. Now there is no-
thing of all this that will in any measure agree to the pluck-
ing off a member from the mystical body of Christ, whereof
alone we speak. If any should be so separated, it must not
only be to his present actual enjoyment of union, but to the
174 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
loss of his Spirit also, and with him of all right and title,
plea, or claim whatever to any interest therein. Neither is
it possible that it should be a means for the correction and
amendment of such a one ; it lying in a direct tendency to
inevitable destruction; separation from all interest in Christ
can look no other way; so that still the uncouthness of such
a procedure abideth.
Secondly, The reason that is added to put some colour
and gloss upon this assertion, viz. 'That such persons as are
affirmed to be so separated from the body of Christ, do vo-
luntarily disfaith (as it is called) themselves, is not to the
purpose in hand.' For,
1. The question is, about the thing itself, whereunto this
answer de mudo, is not satisfactory ; it is urged by the argu-
ment, that it cannot be allowed any way, the answer is, it
is done this way.
2. Were Mr. Goodwin desired to explain unto us the
manner how believers voluntarily do, or may disfaith them-
selves, I suppose he would meet with no small difficulties in
the undertaking. However this sounds handsomely.
3. That they should so disfaith themselves, through sin
and wickedness, without being overcome by the temptations
of Satan, and the power of the enemies with whom they
have to do and wrestle, doubtless will not be affirmed, whilst
they continue in their right wits, and if they lose them, it
will be difficult to manifest how they can voluntarily disfaith
themselves. The state wherein they are described to be by
Mr. Goodwin, and the considerations which for their pre-
servation he allows them, should not, methinks, suffer him
to suppose that of their own accord, without provocations
or temptations, they will wilfully ruin their own souls. Now
that believers should by the power of any temptation or op-
position whatever, or what affliction soever, arising against
them, be prevailed upon to the loss of their faith, and so to
their dismembering from Christ, is that which is objected as
an unseemly uncouth thing, which in this answer Mr. Good-
win earnestly begs may not be so esteemed, and more he
adds not as yet.
The following discourse wherein he i)ursues the business
in hand, is so pretty, as that I cannot but once more present
it to the render. Saith ho.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 175
' As to a politic or civil corporation, it is better that the
governors should permit the members respectively to go or
be at liberty, that so they may follow their business and oc-
cupations in the world upon the better terms, though by oc-
casion of this liberty they may behave themselves in sundry
kinds very unworthily; than it would be to keep them close
prisoners, though hereby the said inconveniences certainly
be prevented ; in like manner it is much better for the body
of Christ, and for the respective members of it, that he
should leave them at liberty to obey and serve God, and fol-
low the important affairs of their souls freely and v>/ithout
any physical necessitation, though some do turn this liberty
into wantonness, and so into destruction, than it would be to
deprive them of this liberty and to cause and constrain them
to any course whatsoever out of necessity : though it is true
the committing of much sin and iniquity would be prevented
hereby in many; the dismembering of the body of Christ's
apostles, by the apostacy of Judas was no disparagement
either to Christ himself, or it.'
Ails. The sum of the whole discourse is, that the Lord
Jesus Christ hath no way to keep and secure his members
to himself, that none of them perish, but by taking away
their liberty which rather than do, it is more to his honour
to let them abuse it, to their everlasting destruction ; and to
this end sundry fine supposals are scattered through the
whole discourse. As,
1. That the liberty of believers is a liberty to sin, which
they may abuse to their own destruction. The apostle is of
another mind; Rom. vi. 17 — 19. 'God be thanked that ye
were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine, which was delivered you. Being
then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteous-
ness,' &c. 2. That there is no real efficacy of grace that will
certainly fulfil in believers the good pleasure of God's good-
ness, and bring forth the fruits of an abiding holiness, but
what must needs deprive them in whom it is of their liberty:
and suitably hereunto ; 3. That God having through Christ
made his saints spiritually free from sin unto righteousness,
so that v.'ith the utmost liberty that they are capable of as
creatures, they shall surely do good, cannot by his Spirit
continue them in that condition, infallibly without the de-
struction of their liberty. 4. That the spiritual operation of
170 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE
God in and with the wills of men, induceth a necessita-
tion as to their manner of operation, that they must act on
that account, as necessary and not as free agents : with
such other the like supposals, which are so many gross
figments whereof Mr. G. shall be able to prove no one to
eternity. For the removal then of all the fine words here
tendered out of our way, it may suffice to tell their author,
that he who is made redemption to his saints, that sets them
free from their bondage to sin, by his Spirit, which is always
accompanied with liberty, and makes them willing, ready,
and free to righteousness and holiness in the day of his
power towards them, whose effectual grace enlargeth and
improves all their faculties in their operations, with the
choicest attendances as to the manner of their working, can,
and doth, by, in, and with, the perfect exercise of their liberty,
keep them to himself, in their union and communion with
him for ever. That this pretended liberty unto sin, is a
bondage from which Christ frees his saints, neither is any
thing that can be imagined more derogatory to the glory of
his grace, than to affirm, that he cannot keep those com-
mitted to him infallibly to the end, without depriving them of
the liberty which they have alone through him. Of physical
necessitation enough hath been spoken before ; Judas was
never a member of the body of Christ, or of Christ in the
acceptation whereof we speak. By the body of the apostles,
is intended only their number, of which Judas (though he was
never of that body whereof they were members) was one.
Farther, the wickedness of ihis apprehension, that Christ
should loose any of those, who are true and living members
of his mystical body, is aggravated upon the account of that
state and condition, whereinto he parts with them. They
being thereby made members of Satan, and his kingdom ;
God and the devil so interchanging children to the great
dishonour and reproach of his name: to this Mr. Goodwin
replies, in the twenty-eighth section.
' For the interchange of members between Christ and Sa-
tan, the Scripture presenteth it as a thing possible, yea, as
frequent and ordinary ; Know ye not (saith the apostle) that
your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take
the members of Christ, and make them the members of an
harlot? In the original it is, "Apa? ouv to. imiXij too Xpicrrov
TToiriaio, 8cc. i. e. taking away the members of Christ, shall I
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 177
make them, &c. meaning that true believers who only are
the members of Christ disrelate themselves to him, cease to
be members of his body, whilst they live in a course of whore-
dom and adultery, and make themselves members of another
far different relation, viz. of those harlots, with whom they wil-
fully commit sin, and consequently in such a sense of the devil.'
Alls. First, For the sense of that place of the apostle,
1 Cor. vi. 15. as far as it relates to the merit of the cause in
hand, I shall have occasion to speak unto it at large here-
after, and so shall not anticipate myself, or reader ; for the
present I deny that there is the least mention made of any
interchange of members between Christ and the devil, much
less of any such thing as frequent and ordinary ; it is true
the apostle says that he that is 'joined to an harlot makes
his members the members of an harlot/ and on that consi-
deration and conclusion, with part of the dignity of believ-
ers, whose persons are all the members of Christ, persuades
them from the sin of fornication ; that they may so much as
fall into that sin, he doth not here intimate. That men not
only in respect of themselves, and their principles of sin, and
proneness unto it within, with the prevalency of tempta-
tions, but also eventually, notwithstanding any regard or re-
spect to other external prohibiting causes, may fall into all
the sins from which they are dehorted, Mr. Goodwin hath
not proved as yet, nor shall I live to see him do it.
Secondly, For a man to make himself the ' member of an
harlot,' is no more but to commit fornication : which whe-
ther it be Mr. Goodwin's judgment or no, that none can fall
into or be surprised with, but he is ipso facto cut of from
the body of Christ thereby, I know not; taking in the con-
sideration of what was spoken before, concerning the man-
ner of regenerate persons sinning, with what shall be farther
argued, I must profess I dare not say so ; in the meantime
it is punctually denied, that believers can fall into, or live in
a course of whoredom and adultery, and without such a course
they cease not, according to Mr. Goodwin's sense of these
words, to be members of Christ, nor do they otherwise be-
come members of the devil. There is nothing here then that
intimates such an interchange in the least.
Thirdly, For Mr. Goodwin's criticism upon the word
agaq : it is hardly worth taking notice of.
VOL. vii. N
178 DOCTRINE OF THE SAlNTs' PERSEVERANCE
For first, If by taking, there be meant taking away, the
sense must be, that they are first taken away from being
members of Christ (the word expressing a time past in that
tendency) and then made members of an harlot: which first,
is not suited to the mind of Mr. Goodwin, who endeavours
to prove their ceasing to be members of Christ, by becom-
ing members of an harlot; the efficient cause of their ceas-
ing to be joined to Christ, consisting in their being joined
with an harlot. And secondly, destroys the whole of the
apostle's reasoning in the place, from the great unworthiness
of such a way or practice, as making the members of Christ,
to be 'the members of an harlot,' because none should so be
made, but those who had first ceased to be members of Christ;
and so his assertion instead of an effectual persuasive, should
upon the matter be entangled in a contradiction to itself.
And secondly, As there is nothing in the place to in-
force that sense of the word, so there is nothing in ihe word
to impose that sense upon theplace. When our Saviour speaks
to his disciples, Luke ix. 3. firj^lv alpere fie ri'iv dcov, he doth
not bid them take nothing away for their journey, but' take
nothing with them.' And so Mark vi. 8. where his com-
mand is, that fxrj^tv alpoimv tig oSbv; and in that of Matt iv.
6. when the devil urged to our Saviour, 67rt x^ioCov apovai
<T£, he did not intimate that the angels should take him away
in their hands, but support him from hurt : when Jesus, John
xi. 41 . yps Tovg ncji^aXiiiovg avio, he did not take away his eyes
out of his head, and cast them upward, no more then the
angel did his hand, when ypt rriv xtipa tig tov ovpavbv. Rev.
X. 5. or the apostles their voice, when ypav (pwvriv Trpbg rbv
S'fov, Acts iv. 24. Nor doth Christ command us to take away
his yoke, in that heavenly word of his, "Ajoart tov (^vyiiv /lov
c^' ti/iac* Matt. xi. 29. so that here is little help left to (his
sense imposed on the place, under consideration, from the
importance of the word, and so consequently not the least
countenance given to that horrible interchange of members
between Christ and the devil, which is asserted as a usual
and frequent thing.
What he addeth in the close of the section, is no less
considerable than the beginning of it ; for, saith he, ' if it be
no dishonour to Christ, to take in such as have been mem-
bers of the devil, why should it be any disparagement to him
EXPLAINED AXt) CONFIRMED. 179
to reject such, who by their wicked and abominable ways
render themselves unworthy of such a relation.'
Ans. Believers hold not their relation to Christ, upon
any worthiness that is in themselves for it, but upon the ac-
count merely of grace, according to the tenour of the cove-
nant of mercy. That they may fall into such wicked and
abominable ways, as shall render them altogether unmeet
for that relation, according to the law of it, is that great
argument called petitio principii, which Mr. Goodwin hath
used in this case a hundred times. But the comparison
instituted in the first words is admirable ; confessed it is,
that it is no dishonour to Jesus Christ; yea, that it is his
great honour, seeing ' he came to destroy the works of the
devil, to bind the strong man, to spoil his goods, to destroy
him that had the power of death, and to deliver them who
by reason of death were in bondage all their days, to deli-
ver his people from their sins, washing them in his blood,
and to make them a peculiar people unto himself, zealous
of good works.' That it is no dishonour, I say, for him to
translate them from the power of Satan, into his own king-
dom, making them meet for the inheritance of the saints in
light, by redeeming them from their vain conversation, to
do according as he intended, and to take his own, given him
of his Father, out of the hands of the tyrant which held them
under bondage. Therefore, having undertaken to keep them
and preserve them, having so overcome Satan in them, for
them, by them, broken the head of the serpent, it is no dis-
honour for him, to lose ground given for his inheritance,
with his subjects, members, brethren, children, bone of his
bone, and flesh of his flesh, into the hand of the devil again.
What fort is so strong as to hold out against such a bat-
tery ? If it be no honour for Christ to bind Satan and to
spoil his goods, then it is no dishonour for him to be bound
by Satan and to have his goods spoiled.
Another burden upon the shoulders of Mr. Goodwin's
doctrine, whereof he labours to deliver it, is the great absur-
dity of the repetition of regeneration, whereof there is no
mention at all in the Scripture, and which yet must be as-
serted by him, unless he will affirm all that fall away at any
time irrecoverably to perish ; which howsoever he waves at
present, were with much more probability, according to
N 2
180 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs" PERSEVERANCE
his own principles, to be maintained, than what he insist-
eth on.
'But this repetition of regeneration,' saith he, 'is not
unworthy God, and for men a blessed and happy accommo-
dation. Whether it be 'unworthy God' or no, the Scripture
and the nature of the thing will declare. The ' accommoda-
tion' that it seems to afford unto men, being a plain encou-
ragement to sin at the highest rate imaginable, will perhaps
not be found so happy and blessed unto them. With great
noise and clamour, hath a charge been managed against the
doctrine of the saints' perseverance, upon the account of its
giving supportment to the thoughts of men, in and under
the ways of sin : whether truth and righteousness have been
regarded in that charge, hath been considered. Doubtless
it were a matter of no difficulty, clearly to evince that this
doctrine of the * repetition of regeneration,' is of the very
same tendency and import, which is falsely and injuriously
charged upon that of the perseverance of the saints ; the
worst that a man thinks he can do by any act of sin, is but
to sin himself quite out of the f^ivour of God, into a state of
death, and desert of wrath. He can no farther injure his
soul, than to cast it into the condition of men by nature.
Tell this man, now, whom you suppose to be under the
temptation to sin, at least that he hath in him that great
fool the flesh, which longs for blessed accommodations to
itself, whilst it makes provision to fulfil its lusts, that if he
should so do, this is an ordinary thing for men to do, and
yet to be renewed again and to have a second regeneration ;
do you not encourage him to venture boldly to satisfy his
sinful desires, having such a relief against the worst that
his thouohts and fears can suogest to him?
But whatever it be in respect of God or men, yet that so
it may be Mr. Goodwin proves from Heb. vi. 6. where it is
said, ' that it is impossible to renew some to repentance,'
wherefore some may be renewed ; and in Jude 12. men are
said to be 'twice dead,' therefore, they may live twice spiri-
tually : the first proof seems somewhat uncouth. The per-
sons spoken of in that place are in Mr. G.'s judgment be-
lievers; there is no place of Scripture wherein he more tri-
umphs in his endeavoured confirmation of his thesis. The
Holy Ghost says expressly of them, that it is impossible to
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 181
renew them ; therefore, says Mr. G, it is possible ; what is
of emphasis in the argument mentioned ariseth from two
things. 1. That they are true believers ; of which afterward.
2. That they fall totally away. This then is the importance
of Mr. Goodwin's plea, from this place ; * If true believers
fall totally away, it is impossible they should be renewed to
repentance ; therefore, if true believers fall totally away, it is
possible they should be renewed to and by repentance.' That
there is a falling away, and a renewing again by repentance
of the same persons, we grant. That falling away is partial
only, which is incident unto true believers, who, when God
heals their backslidings, are renewed by repentance. To
be renewed also by repentance, is taken either for the reno-
vation of our natures, and our change as unto state and con-
dition, and so it is the same with regeneration and not to
be repeated ; or for a recovery by repentance in respect of
personal failings, so it is the daily work of our lives. Jude
says, some are ' twice dead \ that is, utterly so, an hyperbo-
lical expression to aggravate their condition. Those to
whom the gospel is a ' savour of death unto death,' may well
be said to be ' twice dead ;' unto the death that they are in-
volved in, and are obnoxious to by nature ; they add a se-
cond death, or rather, seal up their souls under the power
and misery of the other, by contempt of the means of life
and recovery ; therefore, regeneration may be reiterated ;
' Quod erat demonstrandum.'
Much of the section that remains, is taken up in declar-
ing in many words, without the least attempt of proof, that
it is agreeable to the honour of God, to renew men totally
fallen away; that is, when those who have been quickened
by him, washed in the blood of his Son, made partakers of
the divine nature, embraced in the arms of his love, shall
despise all this, disfaith themselves, reject the Lord and his
love, trample on the blood of the covenant, kill their souls
by depriving them of spiritual life, proclaim to all the world,
their dislike of him, and his covenant of grace; yet though
he hath not any where revealed, that he will permit any one
so to do, or that he will accept of them again, upon their
so doing; yet Mr. Goodwin, affirming that for him so to do,
is agreeable to his holiness and righteousness, it is fit that
those who conceive themselves bound to believe whatever
he says, should think so too ; for my part I am at liberty.
182 DOCTRIXE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVER A N'C E
I should not farther pursue this discourse, nor insist on
this digression, but that Mr. Goodwin hath taken advantage
by the mention of regeneration, to deliver some rare notions
of the nature of it, which deserve a little our farther taking
notice of, for which end doubtless he published them. To
make way then for his intendment, he informs us, sect. 29.
'That regeneration itself, according to the grammatical and
proper signification of the word imports a reiteration, or repe-
tition of some generation or other. It cannot import a repe-
tition of the natural generation of men ; the sense of Nico-
demus in this point was orthodox, who judged such a thing-
impossible ; therefore, it must import a repetition of a spiri-
tual generation, unless we shall say (which I think is the
road opinion) that it signifies only the spiritual genera-
tion, with a kind of reflection upon, and unto the birth na-
tural.'
jlns. First, That the grammatical sense of the word im-
ports 'a reiteration of some generation,' is only said ; ava hath
other significations in composition, besides the intimating
of a reiteration of the same thing : either in specie or indi-
vidually, the same again ; ita\ivjivr](jia would seem rather to
inforce such an interpretation, than avayiiniaiq, which yet it
doth not: it is spoken of that which hath no birth properly
at all, as Philo de Mundo, ju)) fxovov ^^ooav rov koctjuou kutt]-
yooHv aWa Kcii TraXivyevricruiv avatptiv' ava of itself is only
through,
Xwpov av vX)/fvTo— Horn. 'OS. s. through a woody coun-
try ; avaaTaaiQ, resurrection, doth not import again, after
another rising before, but a restoration from a lost state; so
is iraXivytvrima used. Matt. xix. 28. To be regenerate, is to
have a new, and another generation, not any one repeated.
In the place mentioned of John by Mr. Goodwin, there is
mention neither of a 'repetition of a former generation,' nor
directly of a new one ; though it be so, it is not there called
so. Our Saviour at first says, tavfii) rtg yivt)^)) avw^Ev, * un-
less a man be born from above,' as the word is elsewhere
rendered, and properly signifies, as John iii. 31. John xix.
11. Mark xv. 38. James iii. 17. and sometimes of old or for-
mer days, as Acts xxvi. 5. once only, it signifies 'again,' Gal.
iv. 9. but there joined with TraXtr, which restrains it. And
in the exposition afterward of what he intended by that ex-
pression, he calls it simply a being ' born of the water and
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 183
the spirit/ ver. 5. without the least intimation of the repe-
tition of any birth, but only the asserting of a new spiritual
one ; called a birth, indeed, with allusion to the birth natural,
whixjh is the road opinion, well beaten ever since Christ first
trod that path. Besides, the very same thing which is ex-
pressed under the name of regeneration, being a spiritual
birth, which a man had not before, is also delivered unto us
in such words and terms, as manifest no reiteration of any
state, condition, or thing to be included therein, as conver-
sion to God, a quickening from death, sanctification by the
spirit, &c. all which manifest the induction of a new life and
form, and not the repetition of another. Hence the ancients
called baptism, regeneration; being the initial ordinance of
Christianity, and expressive of the new life, which in, and
through Christ, we receive; and that from Tit. iii. 5. Rege-
neration, then, neither in the import of the word, nor in the
nature of the thing, doth require a reiteration of any gene-
ration, but only the addition of a new one, to that which a
man hath before ; and whereunto this doth allude. The re-
ceiving of a new spiritual birth and life, is our regeneration,
renovation, resurrection, quickening, implanting into Christ,
and the like : so that the foundation of all the ensuing dis-
course, is a mere quagmire, where no firm footing can be ob-
tained ; and of the same nature is that which ensues. ' It is,'
saith he, ' the common sense of divines, that the two gene-
rations mentioned, the natural and spiritual, are membra di~
videntia, and contra-distinguished the one unto the other ;
and so the apostle Peter too seems to state and represent
them, as also our Saviour himself;' John iii. 6. Now there
can hardly any instance be given, where the introducing of
one contrary form or quality into the subject, is termed a rei-
teration, or repetition of the other ; calefaction (for example)
is never termed a repetition of frigefaction, nor calefaction
called a reiteration of frigefaction ; nor when a regenerate
or mortified man dieth his natural death, is he said to reite-
terate or repeat his spiritual death.
Ans. That in the term ' regeneration' two births are im-
plied, may be granted ; that the same is intimated to be re-
peated, is denied, and not proved at all ; and, therefore,
Mr. Goodwill says well, that the introducing of a contrary
form, is not called the reiteration of another, no more is it
J 84 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE
here ; our new birth is called our regeneration, or new gene-
ration, in allusion to our natural birth, not as a repetition of
it ; neither is the allusion in respect of the contrary qualities,
wherewith the one and the other are attended ; but in respect
of the things themselves, in which regard, as they are not
the same, so they are not contrary, but diverse. They are
both births, the one natural, the other spiritual ; natural and
spiritual in that sense, are not contrary qualities, but diverse
adjuncts ; and so are the two births compared, 1 Pet. i. 23.
Johni. 13. In which last place our regeneration is expressed
under the simple term of being born, with distinction to the
natural birth, and not the least intimation of the iteration of
any birth or generation subjoined; so also is it, James i. 18. so
that hitherto little progress is made by Mr. Goodwin towards
his intendment whatever it be. Thus then he expresseth it :
' I rather/ saith he, ' conceive that regeneration, which the
Scripture makes appropriable only unto persons living to
years of discretion, who generally in the days of their youth,
degenerate from the innocency of their childhood and
younger years, and corrupt themselves with the principles
and ways of the world; relates not to the natural generation
as such, I mean, as natural, but unto the spiritual estate and
condition of men in respect of their natural generation and
birth, in and upon which they are if not simply and abso-
lutely yet comparatively, innocent, harmless, free from pride
and malice ; and in respect of these qualifications, in grace
and favour with God, upon the account of the death and suf-
ferings of Christ for them, as we shall afterward prove.'
Here you have the sum of the design, and the doctrine of
regeneration cleared from all those vain and erroneous opi-
nions, wherewith it hath so long been clouded. It is the
returning of men into the good state and condition wherein
they are born, after they have degenerated into ways of wick-
edness ; we thought it had been the quickening of them, who
are by nature dead in trespasses and sins, their being begot-
ten again by the will of God, the bestowing of a new princi-
ple of Spirit and life upon them, a translation from death to
life, the opening of blind eyes, making them who were dark-
ness, to be light in the Lord. It seems we have all this while
been in the dark, and that regeneration indeed, is only a re-
turning to that condition from whence we thought it had
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 185
been a delivery ; but let us a little see the demonstration of
this new notion of regeneration.
First, he saith, ' The Scripture makes it appropriable only
to them who come to years of discretion.' Sir, your proof;
we cannot take your bare word in a thing of this importance.
In the place yourself chose to mention, as the foundation
you laid of the inferences you are now making, our Saviour
says, it is a being ' born of the Spirit;' doth the Scripture
make this appropriable only unto men of discretion ? Men
only of discretion, then, can enter into the kingdom of God ;
for none, ' not so born of the Spirit shall enter therein ;'
John iii. 5. If none but men of discretion can be born of
the Spirit, then infants have no other birth but only that of
the flesh ; and ' that which is born of the flesh is flesh ;' ver. 6.
not capable of entering into the kingdom of heaven. Surely
you better deserve the title of ' durus pater infantum,' than
he to whom of old it was given ; perhaps a grosser figment
was never framed by a man of discretion.
Secondly, It is true, infants are comparatively innocent,
in respect of actual transgressions ; but equally innocent and
guilty with sinners of discretion, in respect of natural state
and condition. They are no less obnoxious to that death,
from whence our regeneration is a delivery, by the bestow-
ing of a new spiritual life, than a sinner of a hundred years
old : a returning to this condition, it seems, is a regenera-
tion, ' Quantum est in rebus inane !'
Thirdly, The qualifications of infants, not regenerated,
are merely negative, and that in respect of the acts of sin, not
the habitual seed and root of thera ; for in them dwells no
good ; that in respect of these qualifications of innocency
that are in them by nature antecedent to any regeneration
(all Vv^hich are resolved into a natural impotency of perpe-
trating sin), they are accepted in grace and favour with God,
had been another new notion, had not Pelagius and Socinus
before you fallen upon it: ' without faith it is impossible to
please God;' Heb. xi. 6. and his wrath ' abides on them that
believe not ;' John iii. 36. That infants have or may have faith,
and not be regenerated, will scarcely be granted by them
who believe the Spirit of Christ to cause regeneration where
he is bestowed ; Tit. iii. 5. and all faith to be the fruit of
that Spirit ; Gal. v. 26, 27. Farther, for the qualification ^f
186 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
infants by nature ; how are they brought clean, from that
which is unclean ? Are they not conceived in sin and brought
forth in iniquity ? Or was that David's hard case alone? If
they are born of the flesh, and are flesh; if they are unclean,
how come they to be in that estate, upon the account of
their qualifications accepted in the love and favour of him,
who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity ? If this be the
doctrine of regeneration that Mr. G. preaches, I desire the
Lord to bless them that belono- unto him, in a deliverance
from attending thereunto. Oftheeff'ects of the death of Christ,
in respect of all children I shall not now treat ; that they should
be saved by Christ, not washed in his blood, not sanctified
by his Spirit (which to be is to be regenerate), is another
new notion of the new gospel.
The countenance which Mr. Goodwin would beg to his
doctrine, from tliat of our Saviour to his disciples, * except
ye be turned and become as little children ye cannot enter
into the kingdom of God ;' reproving their ambition and
worldly thoughts, from which they were to be weaned, that
they might be fit for that gospel state and employment
whereunto he called them, and wherein they were to serve
him, does no more advantage him nor the cause he hath un-
dertaken, than that other caution of our Saviour to the same
persons, to be 'wise as serpents and innocent as doves/
would do him that should undertake to prove that Christians
ought to become pigeons or snakes. Thus much then we
have learned of the mind of Mr. G. by his digression; 1.
That no children are regenerate ; 2. That they are all ac-
cepted with God through Christ, upon the account of the
good qualifications that are in them ; 3. That regeneration
is a man's returning to the state wherein he is born ; and
having taken out this lesson, which we shall never learn by
heart whilst we live, we may now proceed.
I shall only add to the main of the business in hand, that
so long as a man is a child of God, he cannot, he need not,
to repeat his regeneration. But that one who hath been
the child of God, should cease to be the child of God, is
somewhat strange. How can that be done amongst men?
that he should cease to be such a man's son, who was his
son ? Those things that stand in relation, upon any thing
that is past, and therefore irrevocable, cannot have their
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 187
beins;s continued, and their relation dissolved ; it is impos-
sible but that cause and effect raustbe related one to another;
such is the relation between father and son ; the foundation
of it is an act past and irrevocable, and therefore the relation
itself is indissoluble. Is it not so with God and his children?
when they once stand in that relation, it cannot be dis-
solved. But of these things hitherto.
To proceed with that place of Scripture v.'hich I laid as
the foundation of this discourse. The general w^ay of lust's
dealinor vvith the soul, the brincrino- forth of sin, whereof
there are two acts expressed, ver. 14. the oneofdrawing
away, the other enticing, is to be insisted on. Upon the
first, the person tempted is l^eXKOfxsvoQ, drawn off, or drawn
away ; and upon the second, he is ^eXia^o/mavcg, enticed, or
entangled.
The first stirring of sin is to draw away the soul from
whaitit ougiit to be fixed upon, by its rising up irregularly
to some delightful object. For a man to be drawn away by
his lust, is to have his lust drawn out to some object suited
to it, wherein it deiighteth. Now this drawing away, de-
noteth two thinp;s.
1. The turning of the soul from the actual rectitude of
its frame towards God. Though the soul cannot always be
in actual exercise of grace towards God, yet it ought always
to be in an immediate readiness to any spiritual duty, upon
the account whereof, when occasion is administered, it doth
as naturally go forth to God, as a vessel full of water floweth
forth when vent is given unto it. Hence we are commanded
to pray always. Our Saviour giveth a parable to instruct
his disciples, that tliey ought to pray TravTore ; Luke xviii. 1.
And we are commanded to pray aSiaXtiVrwe, ' without ceasing
or intermission,' 1 Thess. v. 17. which the same apostle in
another place calleth praying Iv iravA ruTTd) ' in every place :'
namely, as occasion is administered. It is not the perpetual
exercise of this duty (as the Jews some of them have ridicu-
lously interpreted the first psalm of 'reading the law day
and night'), which v^ould shutout and cut off all other duties,
not only «>f men's callings and employments as to this life,
but all other duties of the ways and worship of God what-
ever; but it is only the readiness and promptitude of the
heart in its constant frame to that necessary duty, that is
188 DOCTIIIXE OF THE SAIXTS* PERSEVERANCE
required ; now he who is l^eXKOfievog by lust, is drawn off
from this frame ; that is, he is interrupted in it by his lust,
diverting unto some sinful object. And as to this particular,
there is a great difference betwixt the sinning of believers,
and those who arise not beyond that height which the power
of conviction beareth them oftentimes up unto. For,
1. The main of a true believer's watching in his whole
life, and in the course of his walking with God, is directed
against this off-drawing from that habitual frame of his
heart by lust and sin. His great business is, as the apostle
telleth us, to ' take the whole armour of God to him,' that
sin if it be possible, may make no approach to his soul ;
Eph. vi. 13. It is to keep up their spirits to a 'hate of
every evil way and to delight in God continually;' and be-
cause they cannot attain in this life unto perfection, they
cry out of the power of sin leading them captives to the law
thereof. They would have their wills dead to sin, vkolly
dead, and have trouble that they are not so, as to the general
frame of their spirits how oft soever they be drawn off. For
other persons they have truly no such frame at all, what-
ever they may be cut into the likeness of, by the sharpness
of Scriptural convictions that come upon them ; and there-
fore they watch not, as to the keeping of it. The deeper
you dive into them, the more near you come to their hearts,
the worse they are ; their very inward parts is wickedness.
I speak now of the ordinary frame of the one and other.
This drawing off by sin in believers, is by the power of
sin, in opposition to their will. Their wills lie against it to
the utmost : they would not, as was shewed, be so drawn
off. But as for the others, as hath been shewn, however
their minds may be enlightened, and their consciences
awakened, and their affections corrected and restrained,
their wills are wholly dead in sin.
Secondly, When a man is tstAico/ievoc or drawn away, there
are stricken out between the lust and the pleasing object,
some glances of the heart, with thoughts of sin. When lust
hath gone thus far, if a violent temptation fall in, the person
to whom it doth so befall, may be carried, or rather hurried
out and surprised into no small advance towards the perpe-
tration of sin, without the least delight in the sin or consent
of the will unto it, if he be a godly man. So was it in the
EXPLAINED AXD CONFIRMED. 189
case of David, in the cutting of the lap of the garment of
Saul. Lust stirred in him, drew him off from his frame of
dependance on God, and by the advantage of Saul's presence
stirred up thoughts of self-security, and advantage in him,
which carried him almost to the very act of sin, before he
recovered himself. Then, I say, is a man drawn away, not
only in respect to the term from whence, but also of that
whereunto, when the thoughts of the object presented as
suitable to lust are cast in, though immediately rejected.
This I intend by this acting of sin ; which, although it be
our sin, as having its rise and spring in us, and is continually
to be lamented, yet when it is not accompanied witli any de-
light of the heart or consent of the will, but the thought of
it, is like a piece of fiery iron cast into water which maketh
a sudden commotion or noise, but yet is suddenly quenched.
It is that which regenerate men are and may be subject to ;
which also keepeth them humble all their days. There is
more in this drawing away, than a single thought or appre-
hension of evil amounts to (which may be without the least
sin. ' To know evil is not evil') but yet is short of the soul's
consent unto it.
The second way wherein lust proceedeth in tempting is
by enticing the soul, and he who is so dealt withal by it is
said to be SaAEa^OjUtvoc, *to be enticed.' There is something
more in this, than in being only drawn away. The word
here used is twice mentioned in the Second Epistle of Peter,
chap. ii. Once it is rendered to ' beguile,' AtXEa^orrfc
^pvX^Q aarripLicTovQ, ver. 14. and in the other ' alluring,'
ver. 18. It Cometh (as is commonly known) from AeXiag,
a 'bait,' which is from AoXeap or AoXoc, 'deceit,' because the
end of a bait is to deceive, and to catch by deceiving.
Thence SeXea^w is to entice, to allure, to entangle, as men
do fishes and birds with baits. That which by this expres-
sion the Holy Ghost intendeth, is the prevalency of lust in
drawing the soul unto that, which is by the Casuits termed
deledatio morosa, ' a secret delight' in the evil, abiding some
space upon it. So that it would do that which it is tempted
and enticed unto, were it not forbidden ; as the fish liketh
the bait well enough, but is afraid of the hook. The soul
for a season is captived to like the sin, and so is under the
power of it, but is afraid of the guilt. It sticketh only at
190 DOCTliIXE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVEU ANCE
this, ' how shall it do this great thino- and sin a2;ainst the
Lord. Now though the mind never frame any intention of
fulfilling the evil, wherewith the soul is thus entangl J, or
of committing that sin whereunto it is allured and enticed,
yet the aifections having been cast into the mould of sin for
a season, and conformed unto it by delight (which is the
conformity of the affections to the thino- deliohted in), this
IS a high degree of sin ; and that because it is directly con-
trary to that ' death unto sin,' and the * crucifying of the t^esh
and the lusts thereof,' which we are continually called unto.
It is in a sense, a making 'provision for the flesh to fulfil the
lusts thereof:' provision is made though the flesh be not
suffered to feed thereon, but only delight itself with behold-
ing of it.
I shall not deny but this also may befall a true believer, it
being chiefly implied in Rom. vii. but yet with wide dif-
ference, from the condition of other persons, in their being
under the power of the deceits and beguilements of sin. For
first. This neither doth nor can grow to be the habitual frame
of their hearts ; because, as the apostle telleth us, ' they are
dead to sin and cannot live any longer therein ;' Rom. vi. 2.
and, ' their old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of
sin might be destroyed;' ver. 6. Now though a man should
abstain from all actual sins or open committing of sin all
his days, yet if he have any habitual delight in sin, and de-
fileth his soul with delightful contemplations of sin, heliveth
to sin and not to God, which a believer cannot do, for he is
* not under the law but under grace.' To abide in this state,
is to ' wear the garment spotted with the flesh.' But now
take another person, however heightened and wrought up
by convictions, unless it be when conscience is stirred up,
and some affrightment is put upon him, he can as his leisure
affords, give his heart the swing in inordinate affections, or
what else pleaseth and suiteth his state, condition, temper,
and the like.
2. A believer is exceedingly troubled upon the account
of his being at any time led captive to the power of sin in
this kind ; and the review of the frame of his spirit, wherein
his affections were by delight conformed to any sin, is a
matter of sore trouble and deep humiliation to him. I am
of Austin's mind, 'De Nup. Concupis.'cap. 8. that it is this
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 191
perpetrating of sin, and not the actual committing of it,
which the apostle complaineth of; Rom. vii. Two things
persuade me hereunto. First, That it is the ordinary course
and walkino; of a regenerate man, that Paul describeth in
that place ; and not his extraordinary falls and failings, un-
der great and extraordinary temptations. This is evident
from the whole manner of his discourse, and scope of the
place. Now ordinarily, through the grace of God, the saints
do not do outwardly and practically the things they would
not; that is, commit sin actually, as to the outward act;
but they are ordinarily only swayed to this entanglement
by the baits of sin. Secondly, It is the sole work of in-
dwelling sin, that the apostle there describeth, as it is in it-
self, and not as it is advantaged by olhor temptations, in
which it carrieth not believers out to actual sins, as to such
accomplishment of them, which is their state in respect of
great temptations only. It is then, I say, the great burden
of their souls, that they have been in their affections at any
time dealing with the baits of sin, which causeth them to
cry out for help, and filleth them with a perpetual self-ab-
horrency and condemnation.
3. In such surprisals of sin, although the affections may
be ensnared, and the judgment and conscience by their
tumultiiating, dethroned for a season, yet the will still
maketh head against sin in believers, and crieth out, that
whether it will or no, it is captived and violently overborne,
calling for relief, like a man surprised by an enemy. There
is an active renitencv in the will against sin, whose bait is
exposed to the soul, and wherewith it is enticed, allured, or
entangled ; when, of all the faculties of the soul, if any thing
be done in any act of sin in unregenerate men, the will is
the ringleader. Conscience may grumble, and judgment
may plead, but the will runneth headlong to it. And thus
far have I (by way of digression) proceeded in the difference
there is, betwixt regenerate and unregenerate men, as to the
root and foundation of sin, as also to their ordinary walking.
What is farther added by the apostle in the two following
degrees, in the place mentioned, because thence also may
some light be obtained to the business in hand, shall be
briefly insisted on. .
The next thing in the progress of sin, is lust's ' conceiving.*
192 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVERANCE
When it hath turned off the heart from its communion with
God, or consideration of its duty, and entangled or hampered
the affections in dehght with the sinful object proposed,
prevailing with the soul to dwell with some complacency
upon the thoughts of sin, it then falleth to ' conceiving;' that
is, it warms, foments, cherisheth thoughts and deH";hts of
the sin entertained, until it so far prevail upon the will (in
them in whose wills there is an opposition unto it), that
being wearied out with the solicitations of the flesh, it giveth
over its power, as to its actual predominant exercise, and
sensibly dissenteth not, from the sin whereunto it is tempted.
That this may sometimes befall a regenerate person, I have
granted before, and what is the difference herein betwixt
them, and unregenerate persons, may be collected from what
hath been already delivered.
Of the next step of sin, which is, its bringing forth, or
the actual accomplishment of the sin so conceived as above
expressed, there is the same reason. Iiktu, 'it bringeth out'
of its womb, the child of sin, which it had conceived ; it is
the actual perpetration of sin formerly consented unto, that
is expressed under this metaphor. I hsiive little to add upon
this head, to what was formerly spoken. For,
1. As they are not the sins of daily infirmities that are
here intended, in the place of the apostle under considera-
tion, but such as lie in an immediate tendency unto death,
as to their eminent guilt ; as also being the fruit of the
heart's conception of sin, by fomenting and warming
thoughts of sin, with delight, until consent unto it be pre-
valent in the soul, so falls of this nature in the saints, are
extraordinary, and always attended with their loss of peace,
the weakening of their faith, wounding of their souls, and
obnoxiousness, without repentance unto death. God, in-
deed, hath provided better things for them, but for them-
selves, they have done their endeavour, to destroy their
own souls.
2. That God never suffereth his saints to fall thus, but
it is for the accomplishment of some very glorious end of
his, in their afflictions, trials, patience, humiliation, which
he will bring about. These ends of God are many and va-
rious : I shall not enter into a particular discourse concern-
ing them.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 193
3. That an impenitent continuance in and under the
guilt of such a sin, is a sore sign of a heart, that neither
hath, nor ever had any true faith. In others, there is a truth
of that of Austin, who affirmed, that he dared say that it
might be good for some, to have fallen into some eminent
particular sin, for their humiliation and caution all their
days.
4, That this frequent conception of sin, and bringing of
it forth, in persons who have been heightened by convic-
tion to a great regularity of walking and conversation,
is the means whereby they, do go forth unto that which
is mentioned in the last place, which is finishing of sin ;
that is, so to be brought under the power of it, as to com-
plete the whole work of sin. Now men bring it forth by the
the temptations, and upon the surprisals forementioned ; but
they that come to finish it, or do the work of it, in them it
will bring forth death. This I take to be the intendment of
that expression, 'A/jiapTia airoTeXefr^HCFa, ' sin perfected.' The
word airoTeXdv, is nowhere used in the New Testament;
TeXeTv, and IttitsXhv, are ; there is rrjv vofxov nXeiv, which is,
not to do any one act which the law requireth, but to walk
studiously and constantly, according to the rule thereof;
and so cTrtriXeTv, as the apostle useth it, Philip, i. 6. where
we translate it, as here, uTroreXiiv. To * perfect the good
work,' is to walk in the way of grace and the gospel, unto
the end. So to 'perfect sin,' is to fulfil the work of sin, and
to walk in the way of sin, to be under the dominion and
reign of sin so far, as to be carried out in a course of sin-
ning ; and this is that alone, which we exempt believers
from ; which, that they are exempted from, unto all that hath
formerly been spoken, I shall add the consideration of one
place of Scripture, being turned aside from my thoughts of
handling this at large, as the second part of the doctrine of
the saints' perseverance, the former being grown under my
hands, beyond expectation.
Now this place is, the 1 John iii. 9. 'Whatsoever is born
of God, doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him,
and he cannot sin because he is born of God,' A place of
Scripture, that always hath amazed the adversaries of the
doctrine, which hitherto, through the grace of God, we have
asserted ; being in itself, fully sufficient to captivate every
VOL. VII. O
194 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
understanding unto the obedience of its truth, that is not
resolved to cleave to a contrary conclusion, let what demon-
stration soever lie against it. In the defence of the doc-
trine under consideration, should we use expressions of the
same importance with these here used by the apostle, as
we should abundantly satisfy ourselves, that we had deli-
vered our minds and sense to the understanding of any in-
different person, with whom we might have to do ; so we
should by no means avoid all those imputations of folly
and error, that our doctrine sufTereth under, from the men
that have entertained an enmity against it, as it is held forth
in equivalent expressions by us. The authority of the Holy
Ghost hath gained thus much upon our adversaries, that
when he asserteth in express, and expressive terms, the very
thing or things that in us are called folly, that evasions
should be studied, and pains taken to rack his words, to a
sense which they will not bear, rather than plainly to deny
his authority. But let the words, with the scope and ten-
dency be considered. 1. The scope and intendment of the
apostle in the place is to give a discriminating character of
the children of God, and the children of the devil; thus he
fully expresseth himself unto us, ver. 10. ' In this,' saith he,
'the children of God are manifested, and the children of
the devil; whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God,
neither he that loveth not his brother.' And withal to press
on an exhortation against sin, whereunto he useth the argu-
ment that lieth in the following words : ' If any one sin that
thinketh himself to be born of God, he deceiveth himself;'
ver. 7. ' Little children let no man deceive you ; he that
doth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He
that committeth sin is of the devil.' But how proveth he
this? In these words, ' Whosoever is born of God sinnetli
not;' doth not, cannot sin. Such is the genius and nature
of the children of God, of them that are born of him, that
they do not, they cannot sin. You are persuaded that you
are so born of God ; therefore, you must press after such a
frame, such an iiigenie and disposition, such a principle, as
that thereby you cannot sin ; it must manifest itself to be
in you, if you be the children of God.
Now whereas it is offered by Mr. Goodwin, cap. 10.
sect. 27. p. 194. 'That the context, or scope of the whole
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 195
place, doth not invite such an exposition as is usually in-
sisted on, because (saith he) the intent and drift of the apo-
stle from ver. 3. even to the end of the chapter (as he that
doth but run the context over may read), is not to shew or
argue, whether the sons of God may possibly in time so de-
generate, as to live sinfully and die impenitently; but to
evince this, that those who claim the great honour and pri-
vilege of being the children of God, cannot justify or make
good this claim neither unto others, nor unto themselves,
but by a holy and Christian life and conversation. Now it is
one thing to argue and prove, who are the sons of God at
present ; another, whether they who are such at present must
of necessity always so continue. The former is the apostle's
theme in the context, the latter he is wholly silent of.'
I say, it is evident that the scope of the place is to evince,
that in the children of God, those that are born of him,
there is such a principle, genius, a new nature, as that upon
the account thereof, they cannot sin ; and therefore, that those
who have not such principles in them, whatever their pre-
tences be, are not indeed born of God ; and in this he ma-
nifesteth, that those who are indeed born of God, cannot
possibly so degenerate, as to fall into total impenitency, so
as to become children of the devil, which he emphatically
affirmeth.
2. He doth indeed declare, that none can make good
their title to be children of God, but those who can justify
their claim, by a holy and Christian conversation; but yet
moreover, he maketh good the assertion by this farther dis-
covery which he maketh of their new nature, to be such, as
that they cannot sin, or degenerate into a condition of lying
under the power of a vain conversation : so that though his
intent should not be primarily, to manifest that those who
are at present the children of God, cannot apostatize, but
must so continue, yet it is to confirm their nature and ge-
nius, to be such, with the principles which from God they
have received, that so it shall be with them, so they shall
abide ; and to this he is not silent, but eminently expressive.
The context being thus clear, the words themselves are a
proposition or thesis, and a reason for the confirmation of
the truth of that proposition. The proposition is ready at
hand in the words ; ' He that is born of God, doth not, can-
o 2
196 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
not commit sin.' The reason of the proposition confirming
the truth thereof, is twofold ; 1. Because he is born of God ;
2. Because his seed whereof he is so born, remaineth.
The proposition is universal. Hag 6 yeyevrffxivog Ik tov
^eov, 'every one that is born of God;' whence these two
things ensue. 1. The truth of it hath a necessary cause or
causes ; universal propositions must have so, or they are not
true. If that which is their ground may be otherwise, it in-
validates their certainty; such then must be the cause of
this assertion of the apostle.
2. That it compriseth all and every one that is interested
in that which is the cause of the certainty of this universal
assertion or proposition ; every one who is ' born of God,'
that hath this seed, be he young or old, weak or strong, wise
or foolish, exercised in the ways of God, or newly entered
into them, all is one ; whosoever is thus interested in the
foundation, is equally interested in the inference.
In the proposition itself may be considered the subject,
and what is affirmed of it. The subject is, * every one that is
born of God.' That which is affirmed of it is, 'sinneth not,
cannot sin.'
1. For the first, viz. the subject. They are those which
are 'born of God,' and who they are that are so born of God,
the Scripture is clear in; neither is there any difference of
importance, as to the intendment of this expression. Those
who suppose that believers of some erainency only are de-
noted in it, do not consider that all believers whatever are
sharers in the grace intended therein ; they are all said to be
* born again, not of the will of flesh but of God ;' John. i. 13.
For it is ascribed to all believers on the name of Christ, ver.
12. ' He begetteth them all of his own will;' Jam. i. 18. as
also, 1 Pet. i. 23. he is said to 'beget them,' as to 'quicken
them;' Eph. ii. 1. and they to be born of him, as they are
quickened or raised from the dead. Two things are inti-
mated in this expression.
1. A new principle, habit, or spiritual life, which such
persons have ; hence they are said to be * born ;' as they who
are born in the world are partakers of a vital principle that
is the foundation of all their actions; so have they here a new
life, a new vital principle; by their being born are they made
partakers of it.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 197
2. The divine original of that principle or life, is from
God. They have the principle of life, immediately from him,
and therefore are said to be born of God, and both these con-
siderations are here used as descriptions of the subject : and
in the close of the reason of the proposition, they are insisted
on, as the cause of that effect of not sinning; 'he sinneth not
because he is born of God;' both the nature of the principle
itself which in itself is abiding, and the rise or original that
it hath from God, have an influence into that casuality that
is ascribed to it ; but about this there can be no great
contest.
Secondly, That which is affirmed of every such per-
son is, that he 'committeth not sin.' That this expression is
to be attended with its restrictions and limitations is evident,
from that contrariety w^herein, in its whole latitude, it stand-
eth to sundry other testimonies in the book of God ; yea, in
this very epistle. * There is none that doth good and sinneth
not,' saith Solomon, I Kings viii. and ' In many things we
sin all,' saith James, in James iii. 4. And this apostle put-
teth all out of question, by convincing the best of saints,
that have 'communion with the Father and Son,' that by
saying we have no sin, by a denial of it, we involve ourselves
in the guilt of it. 'If we (we apostles, we who have fellow-
ship with the Father and the Son) say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves ;' 1 John. i. 8. 'Doth not commit sin,' then,
cannot be taken absolutely for doth not sin at all. There
is a synecdoche in the words ; and they must be restrained
to some kind of sin, or to some manner or degree in, or of
sinning. Some say 'he doth not, cannot sin,' is, they do not
commit sin with delight, not deliberately and with their full
and whole will, without reluctancy and opposition in their
wills unto sin (which reluctancy is at a vast distance from
the reluctancy that is raised in wicked men from the convic-
tions of their conscience and judgment), which sense is can-
vassed by Mr. Goodwin to no advantage at all, sect. 25.
For in the way and manner formerly explained, this may
well take place. ' Committeth not sin' then, is, doth not so
commit sin as that sin should reign in him spoken of, and
prevail with him to death. There is an emphasis and intention
in the words, 'committeth not sin;' that is, doth not so com-
mit it, as to be given up to the power of it ; he doth not
198 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
commit sin in such a way as to be separated from commu-
nion with God thereby ; which is only done when sin taketh
the rule or reign in any person.
This exposition, Mr. Goodwin saith,'if it can be made to
stand upright, will bear the weight of the whole cause de-
pending alone, but as it is, it argueth weakness to determine
for our own sense, in a controversy or question, without
giving a very substantial reason for the exposition.' I doubt
if Mr. Goodwin's discourses in this treatise were to be tried
by this rule, a man might upon very substantial grounds and
reasons, call many of his assertions into controversy ; and
because he addeth, ' that such is his hard hap he can meet
with no reasons at all,' I must needs question whether he
made any diligent search or no; to this purpose shall supply
him with one or two, that lie hard at hand.
This then to be the intendment of the words is evident:
1. From the scope of the place and aim of the apostle
therein : this is to distinguish, as was said, betwixt the chil-
dren of God and of the devil. The children of the devil
commit sin, ver. 8. ' He that committeth sin is of the devil,'
as he giveth an instance of one that did so sin, ver. 12. ' Cain/
saith he, 'was of the devil, he was of that wicked one and he
committeth sin.' How did Cain commit sin ? Impenitently,
to death, that is the committing of sin which is ascribed to
them that are of the devil, of the wicked one , now, saith
he, 'whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ;' that
is, he doth not so commit sin as the children of the devil,
that wicked one do ; he sins not to death with impenitency.
2. The same apostle doth most eminently clear his own
intendment in this expression, chap. v. 17, 18. of this epistle,
'All unrighteousness is sin ; there is a sin not unto death, we
know that whosoever is born of God, sinneth not, but he
that is begotten of God, keepeth himself, and that wicked
one toucheth him not.' That expression, ver. 18. 'sinneth
not,' standeth in opposition to the sin mentioned, ver. 17.
sin unto death : ' there is a sin unto death ;' but he that is
born of God sinneth not unto death. So that both the con-
text and the exposition of the words given in a parallel place,
affordeth us the sense insisted on.
Three reasons are attended by Mr. Goodwin against tliis
exposition, 'and many more (saith he) are at hand,' which it
EXPLAINED AND CONFIIIMED. 199
seems he is willing to spare for another season. Of those
that he is pleased to use, I have already considered that
which is of the chiefest importance, being taken from the
scope of the place. It hath been already declared, not only
that the sense by him urged is not suitable to the intend-
ment of the Holy Ghost, and that Mr. G. is not a little mis-
taken in his analysis of the chapter, but that the exposition
insisted on by us, is from thence enforced.
His other reasons are, first, 'That the grammar or letter
of the phrase breatheth not the least air of such a sense.'
Ans. That the expression is synecdochical was before
affirmed, what it importeth under the power of that figure, is
the grammatical sense of the words. To the grammatical
regularity and signification of them, doth their figurativeness
belong. Let the words be restrained as the figure requireth,
and the sense is most proper, as was signified.
But secondly, saith he, ' The phrase of committing sin,
is nowhere in the Scripture found in such a sense, as to sin
with final impenitency, or to sin to death.'
Ans. The contrary hath been demonstrated. The same
phrase necessarily importeth no less, ver. 8. of this chapter,
and an equivalent expression beyond all contradiction in-
tending the same, chap. v. 17, 18. Besides, a phrase may be
so circumstantiated, as to be in one only place, restrained
to a sense, which it doth not elsewhere necessarily import.
So that notwithstanding these exceptions, the exposition of
the words is clear as before given in. And yet this is all
Mr. G. produceth as his ground and foundation, whereon
to stand in denying this proposition, 'he that is born of God
sinneth not;' that is, falleth not under the power of reigning
sin, sinneth not to death as the children of the wicked one,
which I shall leave under that consideration wherewith it is
educed from the scope of the text, and the parallel place of
chap. v. 16, 17. The truth is, there is not much need to con-
tend about this expression, Mr. G. granting that the intend-
ment of it is, * that such as are born of God do not walk or-
dinarily and customarily in any ways of known sin,' sect.
28. ' Which,' as he saith, ' is the import of that phrase
TTotav (ifiapTiav (the contrary whereof might yet be easily
evinced), he maketh no trade or occupation of sinning; that
200 DOCTRINE OF THE SAlNTs' PERSEVERANCE
is, he doth not sin in an inconsistency of communion with
God, in the covenant of his grace. Now in this sense he
granteth his proposition, ' he that is born of God sinneth not/
i. e. ordinarily or customarily; that is, so as not be accepted
of God ; that is, no believer sinneth at such a rate as not to
be accepted with God. Add now hereunto the ground and
reason of this assertion, viz. His being born of God, and the
abiding of the seed in him, and we have obtained all that we
desire to evince from this place. Because such a one is
born of God (which is a reason which holdeth good to eter-
nity being an act irrevocably past), and because the seed
abideth in him, he cannot sin ordinarily or customarily :
which kind of sinning alone (as is supposed) can eject the
abiding seed ; that is, he sinneth not beyond the rate of sins
of infirmity, nor in any such way as should render him inca-
pable of communion or acceptance with God.
The apostle nextly advanceth farther with his design and
saith, ' He that is born of God cannot sin :' that is, that sin
which he sinneth not, he cannot sin ; he cannot fall under
the power of reigning sin unto death. I confess the words
can and cannot, are variously used in the Scriptures ; some
kind of impossibility in one respect or other (for things may
be in some regard impossible, that are not so absolutely) it
alway denoteth. The whole of the variety in this kind, may
be referred to two heads.
1. That which is morally impossible. Of that it is said,
that it cannot be done ; 2 Cor. xiii. 8. saith Paul, ' we can
do nothing against the truth :' and Acts iv. 20. say the apos-
tles, ' we cannot but speak the things we have seen and
heard.' It was morally impossible that ever any thino-
should have been done by Paul against the truth ; or that
the apostles, having received the Spirit, should not speak
what they had seen and heard of Christ. And of many
things that are thus morally impossible, there are most cer-
tain and determinate causes, as to make the thing so impos-
sible, as in respect of the event, to be absolutely impossible.
It is morally impossible that the devil sliould do that which
is spiritually good, and yet absolutely impossible. There is
more in many a thing that is morally impossible than a mere
opposition to justice ; as we say, ' Illud possumus quod jure
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 201
possumus.' The causes of moral impossibility may be such,
as to tie up the thing which it relateth unto, in an everlast-
ing nonfuturition. There is also,
2. An impossibility that is physical, from the nature of
the things themselves. So Jer. xiii. 23. ' Can the Ethiopian
change his skin?' that is, he cannot. Matt.vii. 18. ' A good
tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree
bring forth good fruit.' That is, nothing can act contrary
to its own natural principles : and as we shall see afterward,
there is of this impossibility in the ' cannot' here mentioned.
They cannot do it, upon the account of the new spiritual
nature wherewith they are endued .
Now there may be a third kind of impossibility in spi-
ritual things, arising from both these, which one hath not
ineptly called the ethico-physical, or morally-natural, par-
takino; of the nature of both the other. It is moral because
it relateth to duty, what is to be done or not to be dono :
and it is physical because it relateth to a cause or principle
that can, or cannot produce the effect. So our Saviour tell-
eth the Pharisees; 'How can ye being evil, speak good
things ?' Or ye cannot ; Matt. xii. 34. * You cannot hear my
words;' John viii. 43. It was morally impossible theyshould
either speak or hear, that is, either believe or do that which
is spiritually good, having no principles that should enable
them thereunto, having no root that should bear up unto
fruit, being evil trees in themselves, and having a principle,
a root continually, universally, uninterruptedly, inclining
and disposing them another way, to acts of a quite contrary
nature. Of this kind is that impossibility here intimated.
The effect denied is morally impossible, upon the account
of the internal physical cause hindering of it.
However then the word in the Scripture may be variously
taken, yet here it is from adjacent circumstances evidently
restrained to such a signification as in respect of the event,
absolutely rejecteth the thing denied. The gradation of the
apostle also leadeth us to it. ' He sinneth not,' nay, * he can-
not sin.' * He cannot sin,' riseth in the assertion of that before
expressed, ' he sinneth not :' which absolutely rejecteth the
gloss that some seek to put upon the words, namely, that
cannot sin is no more but cannot sin easily ; and cannot sin
but as it were with difficulty ; such is the antipathy and ha-
202 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS PERSEVERANCE
bitual opposition which they have to sin j' which Mr. Good-
win adhereth unto : for besides.
That this is in itself false, there being no such antipathy
in any to sin, but that they may easily fall into it, yea and
with great difficulty and labour do restrain from it, as the
apostle argueth at large, Rom. vii. so is it also flatly contra-
dictory to the words themselves. The apostle saith, ' he that
is born of God sinneth not, cannot sin ;' he can sin, saith
this gloss, though difficultly ; now he that can sin difficultly,
can sin: can sin, and cannot sin, are flatly contradictory ;
he cannot then sin at all, the sin that is intended in the place
of whom it is said, ' he cannot sin.'
Thus we have cleared the first proposition in the words,
both as to the subject, 'every one that is born of God,' and
the predicate, ' sinneth not, cannot sin ;' which last expres-
sion, taken in its only proper and most usual signification,
dpnoteth an impossibility of the event, and plainly confirm-
eth in direct terms the position we insist on from the words.
Mr. Goodwin knoweth not well (if I am able to gather
any thing of his thoughts, from his expressions to the argu-
ment in hand) what to say to this assertion of the apostles.
The argument he intendeth to deal withal from the place he
casteth into this form ; he that sinneth not, neither can sin,
cannot fall away. ' Whosoever is born of God sinneth not,
neither can sin.' Ergo.
Coming to the consideration of that expression * cannot
sin/ he findeth out, as he supposeth, four several accepta-
tions in the Scripture, of the word ' cannot' and giveth us
an account of his thoughts upon the consideration of them;
that in respect of these senses both propositions are false.
Now one of the propositions being the express language and
literal expression of the Holy Ghost, not varied in the least,
there is no way to relieve himself, from being thought and
conceived to give the lie to the blessed Spirit of God, by flatly
denying what he peremptorily affirmeth, but only by deny-
ing the word * cannot' to be taken in this place, in any of
the senses before-mentioned. Doth he then fix on this
course for his own extrication ? Doth he give in another
sense of the word, which he accepts and grants that in that
sense the affirmation of the Holy Ghost may be true ? Not
in the least. Yea plainly for one of the senses he supposeth
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 203
himself to have found out of the word ' cannot,' viz. That it
is said of men, they cannot do such or such a thing, because
of their averseness and indisposition to it, which he exem-
plifieth in that of Christ to the Pharisees, John viii. 43. he
afterward more than intimateth, that this is the sense,
wherein the words 'cannot sin' are in this place to be taken;
sect. 34. So that he will not allow the Holy Ghost to speak
the truth, although he take his words in what sense he
pleaseth. Yea, and adding a fifth sense, sect. 31. which is
all it seemeth he could find out (for we have heard not of
any more), he denieth that to be the meaning of the place,
and so shutteth up the mind of the Holy Ghost into some of
those significations, wherein if the words be taken, he saith,
they are false. The discourse of Mr. Goodwin, sect. 28 — 30.
(being taken up with the consideration of the various signi-
fications of the word 'cannot' and his inferences thereon;
taking it in this place, this way or that way, then it is so or
so, shewing himself very skilful at fencing and warding oflf
the force of our arguments, as perhaps his thoughts of him-
self were upon a review of what he had done) we are not
concerned in. And though it were very easy to manifest
that in the distribution of his instances, for the exemplifi-
cation of the several significations which in part he feigneth,
and fasteneth upon the words, he hath been overtaken with
many gross mistakes, some of them occasioned by other
corrupt principles than those now under consideration, yet
none of the senses insisted on by him, coming really up to
the intendment of the Holy Ghost without any disadvantage
to our cause in hand, being wholly unconcerned therein, we
may pass by that whole harangue.
That which looketh towards the argument under consi-
deration, appeareth first in sect. 31. which he thus proposeth.
'If the said argument understandeth the phrase 'cannot sin'
according to the fifth and last import mentioned of the word
'cannot,' wherein it soundeth an utter and absolute incapa-
city and impossibility, then in this sense the major propo-
sition is granted : viz. he that doth not, nor can sin, cannot
fall away from his faith ; yet the minor is tardy which saith.
Whosoever is born of God sinneth not, neither can sin ; for
he that is born of God is in no such incapacity of sinning;
of sinning I mean in the sense formerly asserted to the Scrip-
204 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
ture in hand, which amounteth to an absolute impossibility
for him so to sin.'
Alls. Because this seemeth to be the sense intended in
the argument, and the minor proposition in this sense to be
built upon the Scripture in hand, let us consider whether
the reason which is assigned for the said assertion, doth ne-
cessarily enforce such a sense thereon. What we under-
stand by this phrase both as to that sin that is here intended,
and that impossibility of committing it, or falling into it
often in that expression ' cannot' hath been before dis-
covered. An impossibility it is of the event, from the
causes above-mentioned that the Holy Ghost intendeth. An
utter and absolute incapacity to sin, on any account, we as-
sert not; an impossibility of so sinning, in respect of the
event, for the reasons and from the causes above-mentioned,
the Holy Ghost averreth. In this sense the first proposi-
tion is granted. He that doth not commit sin nor can sin,
cannot fall away from his faith, or can utterly lose it. The
minor, which is the express language of the Holy Ghost, is
questioned and found tardy ; that is, as I suppose, false ; and
the reason is added, namely, * that he that is born of God is
in no such incapacity of sinning ;' that is, of sinning in that
kind of sinning which is here intended, which amounteth to
an impossibility for him so to sin : not to play fast and loose,
under those ambiguous expressions of incapacity and abso-
lute impossibility, the event is positively denied upon the
account of the prohibiting causes of it, and the incapacity
asserted, relateth not to the internal frame and principle
only, but respecteth also other considerations. Whether
these are such as to bear the weight of this exposition, is
that which cometh nextly to be discussed, viz. the causes of
this state and condition, of those who are thus born of God,
and the reasons investing that universal proposition, * every
one that is born of God cannot sin:' with a necessary truth.
In the reasons added of the former affirmation, there is
an emphatical distribution of the two parts of the predicate
of the former proposition, by the way of ascending to a
more vehement confirmation of them. ' He that is born of
Godsinneth not ;' but why so ? ' His seed remaineth ; neither
can he sin ;' why so? ' because he is born of God.' It is an
expressive pursuit of the same thing, and not a redoubling
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 205
of the proposition ; and this contexture of the words, is so
emphatically significant, that it seemeth strange how any-
head of opposition can be made against it. There is no
reason, then, to resolve the words into two propositions of
distinct consideration each from other; it being one and the
same thing that the apostle intendeth to express, though
proceeding to heighten the certainty of the thing, in the
minds of them to whom he delivered it, by the contexture of
the words which he maketh use of. What is meant, or in-
tended by the ' seed of God,' we need not dispute ; the ar-
gument of the apostle lieth not in the words * seed of God,'
nor in the word ' abideth,' but in the whole, ' The seed of
God abideth ;' and therefore it were to no purpose at all, to
follow Mr. Goodwin in his considerations of the word 'seed,'
and then of the ' seed of God,' and then of the word * abideth,'
divided one from another. The sum of his long answer is,
the word * seed' doth not import any such thing as is aimed
at from the text, nor the word ' abide,' but to the whole
proposition, ' the seed of God abideth in him ;' as produced
to confirm the former assertion of the not sinning of the per-
sons spoken of, there is nothing spoken at all ; I shall there-
fore briefly confirm the argument in hand, by the strength
here communicated unto it, by the Holy Ghost, and then
consider what is answered to any part of it, or objected to
the interpretation insisted on. That, ' he that sinneth not,
neither can sin,' in the sense explained, shall never fall away
totally or finally from God, is granted. That believers sin
not, nor can sin, so, or in the manner mentioned, besides
the testimony of the Holy Ghost, worthy of all acceptation
in the clear assertion of it, we have the reason thereof mani-
fested, in the discovery of the causes of its truth. The first
reason is, 'because the seed of God abideth in them.' A
tacit grant seemeth to be made ; that fruit sometimes may
not visibly appear upon them, as the case is with a tree in
winter, when it casts its leaves : but its seed remaineth.
Grace may abide in the habit, in, and under a winter of
temptation, though it doth not exert itself in bearing any
such actual fruit, as may be ordinarily visible. The word
of God is sometimes called 'seed incorruptible ;' seedcausa-
tively, as being an instrument in the hand of God, whereby
he planteth the seed of life and holiness in the heart ; that
206 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
it is not the outward word, but that which is produced, and
effected by it, through the efficacy of the Spirit of God, that
is by seed intended, is evident from the use and nature of
it. And it is abiding in the person in whom it is. What-
ever it is, it is called 'seed,' not in respect of that from
whence it cometh, as is the cause and reason of that appel-
lation of other seed, but in respect of that vphich it pro-
duceth, which ariseth and ensueth upon it : and it is called
the 'seed of God,' because Godusethit for the regeneration
of his. Being from God, being the principle of the regene-
ration of them in whom it is, abiding in them even when it
hath brought forth fruit, and continuing so to do, it can be
no other but the new creature, new nature, inward man, new
principle of life, or habit of grace, that is bestowed upon all
believers, whence they are regenerate, quickened, or born
again, of which we have spoken before.
This seed, saith the Holy Ghost, abideth, or remaineth
in him. Whatever falling or withering he may seem to
have, or hath, this seed, the seed of God remaineth in him.
The principle of his new life abideth ; some exceptions are
made as we shall see afterward, to the signification of the
word (fxivei) 'remaineth,' and instances given where it signi-
fieth for ' to be,' and denoteth the essence of a thing, not its
duration. That to abide, or remain, is the proper signifi-
cation of the word, 1 suppose will not be questioned. That
it may in some place be used in another sense, is not dis-
puted. All that lieth under consideration here, is, whether
the word in this place be used properly, according to its
genuine and first signification, or no ? It supposeth indeed
* to be' also ; but properly signifieth only to abide or remain.
Now if nothing can be advanced from the text, or context,
from the matter treated on, or the parallel significancy of
some expression that is in conjunction with it, that should
enforce us to carry it from its proper use and signification,
the instancing of other places, if any such be, wherein it is
restrained to denote being, and not duration, is altogether
impertinent to the business in hand. When an argument is
urgevl from any place of Scripture, to pick out any word in
the text, and to manifest that it hath been used improperly
in some other place, and therefore must be so in tiiat, is a
procedure so far from an ingenious answer, that it will
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 207
scarce pass for a tolerable shift or evasion. To remain, then,
or to abide, is the proper signification of this word, and
nothing is in the least offered to manifest that it must ne-
cessarily in this place be diverted from its proper use.
According to the import of the word, the seed of God
remaineth in believers ; now that remaining of the seed, is
the cause of their not sinning that sin, or in that manner,
as the apostle here denieth them to be liable to sin. For
that is the reason he giveth why they cannot sin, even
because the seed of God remaineth in them. Mr. Goodwin
granteth, that this seed remaineth in believers always, unless
they sin by a total defection from God. Of not sinning
the sin of total defection from God, the remaining or
abiding of this seed is the cause. Whilst that abideth, they
cannot sin, that sin, for it is an unquestionable cause and
uncontrollable of their not so doing. This seed therefore
must be utterly lost, and taken away, before any such sin
can be committed. Now if the seed cannot be lost, without
the commission of the sin which cannot be committed till
it be lost, neither can the seed be lost, nor the sin be com-
mitted. The same thing cannot be before and after itself.
He that cannot go such a journey, unless he have such a
horse, and cannot have such a horse unless he go such a
journey, is like to stay at home. In what sense the words
* cannot sin' are to be taken, was before declared. That
there are sins innumerable, whereinto men may fall notwith-
standing this seed, is confessed. Under them all, this seed
abideth ; so it w^ould not do under that which we cannot
sin, because it abideth ; but because it abideth, that sin
cannot be committed.
The latter part of the reason of the apostle's assertion, is,
' for he is born of God ;' which is indeed a driving on the
former to its head and fountain. What it is to be born of
God we need not dispute. It was sufficiently discovered in
the mention that was made before of the seed of God. God,
by his Holy Spirit bestowing on us a new spiritual life which
by nature we have not, and in respect of whose want we are
said to be dead, is frequently said to beget us ; James i. 14.
and we are said to be born of God. He is the sovereign
disposer, dispenser, and supreme fountain of that life, which
is so bestowed on us, which we are begotten again unto, and
208 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
are born with, and by ; and Jesus Christ the mediator, is
also said to have this ' life in himself,' John v. because he hath
received the Spirit of the Father, to give to his, for their
quickening; who taketh of his, and thereby begetteth them
anew. And this life which believers thus receive, and
whereby indeed radically they become believers, is every
where in Scripture noted as permanent and abiding. In
respect of the original of it, it is said to be * from above, from
heaven, of the will of God, of God ;' as to its principle, to
be 'not of flesh, or blood, or of the will of man,' or of any
thing done by us, but of the 'seed of God, incorruptible
seed, seed that abideth ;' in respect of its duration to be
eternal, and that it may so be, to be safe-guarded, being
* hid in God with Christ,' In this place 'receiving this life
from God,' is placed as the cause; and 'cannot sin,' as the
effect. He cannot sin, for, or because he is born of God.
The connexion that is between this cause and effect, or
wherein the causality of being born of God to a not sinning
doth consist, needs not be inquired into. That it hath such
a causality, the Holy Ghost hath asserted, and our argument
resteth thereon. If that be the nature of regeneration, or
being born of God, that it doth exclude apostacy, then he
that is regenerate, or born of God, as every believer is,
cannot so sin as to apostatize, or fall totally from God ; but
that such is the nature of regeneration whereby any one
is born of God, the Holy Ghost here declareth ; for he de-
nieth apostacy upon the account of regeneration ; 'he cannot
sin because he is born of God,' which is that which we in-
tended to demonstrate from this text of Scripture.
To evade the force of this argument, Mr. Goodwin (as
hath been declared) undertaketh to give an exposition of
this place of Scripture, turning every stone, and labouring
to wrest every word in it. The several significations of the
words in other places are set out, and suppositions made of
taking them this way, or that way : but in what sense the
scope of the matter treated on, the most usual, known, com-
mon, acceptations call for their use in this place, nothing
is spoken ; neither is any clear answer once attempted to
be given to the words of the text, speaking out, and home,
to the conclusion we intend, or to the argument thence de-
duced. What I can gather up from sect 31, and forwards,
EXPLAINED AXD COXFIRMED. 209
that may obstruct the thoughts of any, in closing with the
interpretation given, I shall consider, and remove out of the
way. 1. Then, he giveth you this interpretation of these
words, * sinneth not, or cannot sin: Every one that hath
been born of God sinneth not ; i. e. Whosoever hath by the
word and Spirit of God been made partaker of the divine
nature, so as to resemble God in the frame and constitution
of his heart and soul, doth not under such a frame, or change
of heart as this make a trade or practice of sinning, or walk-
ing in any course of inordinateness in the world. Yea(saith
he) in the latter proposition, every such person doth not only
or simply refrain sinning in such a sense, but he cannot sin;
(i. e.) he hath a strong and potent disposition in him which
carrieth him another way, for he hath a strong antipathy or
averseness of heart and soul against all sin, especially all
such kind of sinning.'
A/ts. 1. What is meant by being * born of God,' the way
whereby any come so to be, the universality of the expression
requiring a necessary cause of its severity, with the like at-
tendencies of the proposition have been before declared.
2. What Mr. Goodwin intendeth by such a frame and
constitution of spirit and soul, as may resemble God, with
his denial of the bestowing on us from God a vital principle
of grace, wherein the renovation in us of his image should
consist, hath in part also been already discovered, and will
yet farther be so, in our consideration of his rare notion of
regeneration, and its consisting in a man's return to the in-
nocent and harmless estate wherein he was born.
3. That ' sinneth not' is sinneth not that sin, or so sinneth,
not as to break his relation to God as a child, hath been al-
ready also manifested, and the reader is not to be burdened
with repetition.
4. In the interpretation given of the latter phrase ' he can-
not sin,' I c&nnot so sin against the light of the text, as to
join with Mr. Goodwin in it. It is not the antipathy of his
heart to sin, but the course of his walking with God, in re-
spect of sin, that the apostle treateth on. His internal prin-
cipleing against sin, he hath, from being born of God, and
the abiding of his seed in him, of v/hich this, that * he cannot
sin,' is asserted as the eft'ect. ' He cannot sin ;' that is, he can-
not so sill, upon the account of his being born of God
VOL. VII. p
210 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
(thence indeed he hath not only a potent disposition another
way, and antipathy to evil, but a vital principle, with an
everlasting enmity, and repugnancy to, and inconsistency
with, any such sin, or sinning as is intimated); and that he
cannot sin, is the consequent and effect thereof, and is so
affirmed to be, by the Holy Ghost.
Nextly, Mr. Goodwin giveth you the reason of this as-
sertion used by the apostle, why such a one, as of whom he
speakethjsinnethnot, and cannot sin. * Now the reason, saith
the apostle, why such a person committetli not sin in the
sense explained, is because his seed, the seed of God, by
whom, of which, he was born of him, remaineth in him, (i. e.)
is, or hath an actual and present being, or residence in him :
and that in this place it doth not signify any perpetual abi-
ding, or any abiding in relation to the future, is evident ; be-
cause the abiding of the seed here spoken of, is given as the
reason, why he that is born of God, doth not commit sin,
(i. e.) doth not frequently walk in any course of known sin.
Now nothing in respect of any future permanency or conti-
nuance of being, can be looked upon as the cause of an effect,
but only in respect of the present being or residence of it.
The reason why the soul moveth to-day, is not because it will
move or act the body to-morrow, or because it is in the body
to-day, upon such terms, that it will be in to-morrow also
much less because it is an immortal substance ; but simply
because it is now or this day in the body. So the reason
why angels at this day do the will of God, is not because
they have such a principle of holiness, or obedience in them,
which they cannot put off, or lose to eternity, but because
of such a principle as we speak of, residing in them at pre-
sent : therefore, when John assigneth the remaining of the
seed of God in him that is born of him, for the reason why
he doth not commit sin, certain it is that by this remaining of
the seed he meaneth nothing else but the present residence
or abode thereof in this person ; and if his intent had been
either to assert, or imply a perpetual residence of this seed
in him tliat is born of God, it had been much more proper
for him to have saved it for a reason of the latter proposi-
tion. He that is born of God cannot sin, than to have sub-
joined it as a reason of the former ; for though the future
continuance of the thing in being, can be no reason of tlie ef-
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 211
feet present, yet it will be a ground or reason of the continu-
ance of a present effect.'
Ans. I have thus at large transcribed this discourse, be-
cause it is the sum of what Mr. Goodwin hath to offer for
the weakening of our argument from this place ; of what
weight this is, will quickly appear. For,
1 . This reason, * the seed abideth in him,' though brought
in illatively, in respect of what was said before, ' he doth not
commit sin,' yet hath its causal influence chiefly into that
which followeth, 'he cannot sin.' To make good what was
first spoken, of his not committing sin that is born of God,
the apostle discovereth the cause of it, which so far secureth
the truth of that expression, as that it causeth it to ascend,
and call them up higher, to a certain impossibility of doing
of that which was only at first simply denied. Neither is
this assertion, ' the seed of God abideth in him,' any other-
wise a reason of the first assertion, * he committeth not sin,'
than as it is the cause of the latter, ' he cannot sin.' Now Mr.
Goodwin granteth, in the close of his discourse, that the future
continuance of a thing in being, is, or may be, the cause of the
continuance of an effect which at present it produceth ; and
what Mr. Goodwin may more curiously discover of the in-
tent of the apostle, his words plainly assert the continuance
and abode of the seed of God in them in whom it is ; and
using: it as he doth, for a reason of the latter clause of that
proposition, * he cannot sin,' he speaketh properly enough,
so great a master (of one language at least) as Mr. Goodwin
being judge.
2. The reason insisted on by the apostle, is neither from
the word ' seed' nor from the word ' abideth' nor from the
nature of the seed simply considered, nor from its perma-
nency and continuance, * the seed abideth ;' so that it is no
exception to the intendment of the apostle, to assert the
abiding of the seed, not to be a sufficient cause of the pro-
position, because its abiding or permanency is not a cause
of present not sinning, for it is not asserted that it is. His
present not sinning in whom it is, is from God, his being born
of God by the seed, his continuance and estate of not sin-
ning (botli which are intended), is from the abiding of the
seed. The whole condition of the person, that ' he sinneth
not, neither can sin' (which terms regard his continued
p 2
212 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
estate) is from the whole proposition, ' the seed of God abi-
deth in him.' Separate the permanency of the seed, which
is asserted in the consideration of it, and it respects only
and solely, the continuance of the effect which is produced
by it as seed, or of the estate wherein any one is placed, by
being born of God. All that Mr. Goodwin hath to offer in
this case, is, that the abiding of the seed, is so asserted to be
the reason of that part of the proposition ' he commits not
sin,' as not to be the cause rrig avE,iiatioc, ' he cannot sin ;'
when the abiding of the seed, singly considered, is not used
as any reason at all of the first, nor in the proposition as it
lieth, ' the seed abideth' any otherwise, but as it is the cause
of the latter, ' he cannot sin.'
3. Ev^en the expression 'he committeth not sin,' de-
noteth not only the present actual frame and walking of him
of whom it is spoken, but his estate and condition : being
once born of God he committeth not sin ; no one that is so
born of God doth ; none in the state and condition of a re-
generate person doth so ; that is, in his course and walking
to the end ; and this is argued not so much distinctly to the
permanency of the seed, as from the seed with such an
adjunct.
4. Mr. Goodwin's allusions to the soul, and the obe-
dience of angels, are of little use or none at all to the illus-
tration of the business in hand. For though the reason
why the soul moveth the body to-day, is not because it will
move it to-morrow, yet the reason why the body moveth
and cannot but do so, is because it hath the soul abiding in
it, and he that shall say, ' he that liveth, moveth, for he hath
a soul abiding in him and cannot but move,' shall speak pro-
perly enough. And the reason why the angels do the will
of God in heaven, that is, actually continue in so doing is,
because they have such a confirmed and uncontrollable
principle of obedience. So that all these exceptions amount
not to the least weakening of the apostle's arguments.
Sect. 32. Our author giveth two instances (o prove that
the word fxivH in the Scripture, signifieth sometimes only to
be, and not to abide, and they are, the one, John xiv. and
the other, 1 John iii. 14. And one argument to manifest
that in the place under consideration, it must needs signify
a present abode and being, and not a continuance, 8vc.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 213
Ans. 1. If any such places be found, yet it is confessed
that it is an unusual sense of the word, and a thousand
places of that kind, will not enforce it to be so taken in
another place, unless the circumstances of it, and matter
whereabout it treateth, enforce that sense, and will not bear
that which is proper.
2. Mr. G. doth not make it good by the instances he
produceth, that the word is tied up in any place, to denote
precisely only the being of a thing, without relation to its
abidins and continuance. Of the one, John xiv. 17. * But
ye know him because he remaineth with you, and shall be in
you :' saith he, ' the latter clause. Shall be in you, will be
found a mere tautology, if the other phrase, Abideth with
you, importeth a perpetual residence or inbeing.'
But that this phrase * abideth with you' importeth the
same with the phrase in the foregoing verse, where it is
clearly expounded by the addition of the term ' for ever'
(that he may abide with you for ever), 1 suppose cannot be
questioned. Nor,
2. Is there any tlie least appearance of a tautology in the
words. His remaining with believers, being the thing pro-
mised, and his inbeing, the manner of his abode with them.
Also the 1 John xiv. nivu Ivt(^ S-ovarw, doth not simply de-
note an estate or condition, but an estate or condition in
its nature, without the interposition of almighty grace,
abiding and permanent : so that neither have we yet any
instance of restraining the significancy of the word, as pre-
tended, produced : nor if any place could be so, would it
in the least enforce that acceptation of the word in this place
contended about. Wherefore, Mr. Goodwin, as I said, add-
eth an argument, to evince that the word must necessarily
be taken in the sense by him insisted on in this place, which
is indeed a course to the purpose, if his argument prove so
in any measure; it is this: 'Because such a signification of
it, would render the sense altogether inconsistent with the
scope of the apostle, which is to exhort Christians unto
righteousness and love of the brethren ; now it is contrary to
common sense itself, to signify unto those whom we persuade
to any duty, any such tiling which imports an absolute cer-
tainty or necessity of their doing it, whether they take care or
use any means for the doing of it or no : and a clear case it is.
214 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
that the certainty of a perpetual remahiing of the seed of
God in those that are born of him, importeth a like cer-
tainty of their perpetual performance of that duty whereunto
they are exhorted.'
Ans. If this be all it might have been spared. The argu-
ment consisteth of two parts : 1. An aspersion of the infinite
wisdom of God, with a procedure contrary to all reason and
common sense. 2. A begging of the thing in question, be-
twixt its author and its adversaries. That there is anything
at all in the text, even according to our interpretation of it,
that importeth an absolute necessity of men's doing any-
thing, whether they take care to use the means of doing
it or no, the reader must judge. The abiding of the seed
is that, we say, which shall effectually cause them, in
whom it is to use the means of not sinning, that eventually
they may not do so ; and that a certainty of the use of
means is imported, is no argument to prove that their neces-
sity of persevering is proved, whether they use means, yea
or no. To take care to use means, is amongst the means
appointed to be used ; and this they shall do, upon the ac-
count of the abiding seed. That indeed, which is opposed,
is, that God cannot promise to work effectually in us by the
use of means, for the accomplishment of an appointed end,
but that withal rendereth useless and vain, all his exhorta-
tions to us to use those means. This is Mr. Goodwin's ar-
gument from the place itself, to enforce that improper ac-
ceptation of the word ' reraaineth' in us.
What remaineth of Mr. Goodwin's long discourse upon
this text of Scripture, is but a fencing with himself and rais-
ing of objections, and answering of them suitably to his own
principles, wherein we are not in the least concerned. There
is not any thing from the beginning to the end of it, that
tendeth to impeach our interpretation of the place, or im-
pede the progress of our argument, but only a flourish set
upon his own exposition, which if he were desired to give in
briefly, and in terms of a plain downright significancy, I am
verily persuaded, he would be hardly put to it, to let us
know what his mind and conceptions of this place of Scrip-
ture are. But of this subject, and in answer to his fifth ar-
gument with the chapter, this is the issue.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 21,
CHAP. XVI.
Mr. G.'s seventh argument about the tendeneij of the doctrine of the saints'
apostacy as to their consolation proposed. Considered: what that doctrine
offer eth for the consolation of the saints, offered; the iinpossibility of its
affording the least true consolation manifested. The infiuencc of tlte doc-^
trine of the saints^ perseverance into their consolation. The medium
whereby Mr. G. confirms his argument examined ; what hind of nurse for
the peace and consolation of the saints, the doctrine of apostacy is, whether
their obedience be furthered by it; what are the causes and springs of true
consolation. Mr. G.^s eighth argument proposed to consideration. An-
swer thereunto, the minor proposition considered ; the Hohj Ghost 7iot
afraid of the saiiits' miscarriages. The confirmation of his minor propo-
sition proposed and considered. The discourse assigned to the Holy Ghost
by Mr. G. according to our principles. Considered. Exceptions against
it, the first. The second. The third. The fourth. The fifth. The sixth.
The seventh. The foundation of 3Ir. G.'s pageant everted. The proceed-
ings of the Holy Ghost in exhortations according to our principles. So-
phisms in the former discourse farther discovered. His farther plea
in this case proposed. Considered. The instance of Christ aiid his obe-
dience considered and vindicated as to the application of it, to the business
in hand. 3Ir. G.'s last argument proposed. Examined. 1 Jolin ii. 19.
. explained. Vindicated. Argument from thence for the perseverance of
the saints. Mr. G.'s exceptions thereunto. Considered and removed. The
same words farther perused. Mr. G.'s consent with the remonstrants
manifested by his trasci'iptions from their synodalia. Our arymnentfrom
1 Jolin ii. 19. fidly cleared. The conclusion of the examination of Mr.
G.'s arguments for the apostacy of the saints.
The seventh arg-ument which Mr. Goodwin insi^teth upon
in the 36th section of his 13th chapter contains one of the
greatest rarities he hath to shew in the whole pack, con-
cerning the influence of the doctrine of the saints' apostacy
into their consolation in their walking with God, an under-
taking so uncapahle of any logical confirmation, as that
though Mr. Goodwin interweave his discourse concernino- it
vv'ith a syllogism, yet he quickly leaves that thorny path
and pursues it only with a rhetorical flourish of words, found
out and set in order to deceive. At the head then of his
discourse he placeth this argument, as it is called :
'That doctrine whose genuine and proper tendency is
to advance the peace and joy of the saints in believino-, is of
a natural sympathy vith the gospel, and upon this account
216 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERAXCE
a truth ; such is the doctrine, whicli informeth the saints of
a possibility of their total and final falling away.' Ergo.
The proposition of this syllogism he supposes we will grant,
and (not to trouble the reader with the qualifications and limi-
tations formerly annexed to that which proposed the further-
ance of the obedience of the saints, as a proof of the truth of
any doctrine) for my part I do. For the proof of the assumption
wherein alone Mr. Goodwin's interest in this arsrument doth
lie, he refers us to his 9th chapter ; where, as he tells us (if we
may believe him), he hath^indeniably demonstrated the truth
of it. But we have considered whatever looks that way in
that chapter, and have found it all as chaff and stubble,
before the breath of the Spirit of the Lord in the word.
That which lies upon his shoulders to support (a burden
too heavy for him to bear), and whose demonstration he
hath undertaken is, that it tends to the peace, joy, and con-
solation of the saints of God, in tlieir walking with him
(which arises from and solely depends upon that assurance
they have of their eternal fruition of him through Christ) to
be instructed ; that indeed they are in themselves weak, un-
able to do any thing as they ought, that they have no strength
to continue in the mercy of God, but carry about with them
a body of death, and that they are continually exposed to a
world of temptations, whereby many strong men fall down,
are thrust through and slain every day; and that in this
condition there is no consideration of the immutability or
unchangeableness of God, that may secure them of the con-
tinuance of his love to them ; no eternal purpose of his that
he will preserve them, and keep them, through his power ; no
promise of not leaving them, or of giving them such supplies
of his Spirit and grace that they shall never forsake, nor leave
him; nothing in the covenant, or oath of God whereby it is
confirmed, to assure them of an abiding, and not-to-be-de-
stroyed communion with him; that Christ by his death and
oblation hath not so taken away the guilt of their sins, nor
laid such a sure foundation for the destruction of the power
of them, as that they shall not arise either way to their ruin;
that he intercedes not for their preservation in faitli and ho-
liness, upon the account of which state and condition of
things, many of the most eminent saints that ever served
God in, this world have utterly fallen out of his love and
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 2l7
favour, and have been cast out of covenant, from whence,
though perhaps some few have been recovered, yet for the
greatest part of them, have perished everlastingly (as is the
state in reference unto many in every generation): only such
may do well to consider what a fearful and desperate issue
their apostacy will have, if they should so fall, and what an
eminent reward, with what glory is proposed to them, if they
persevere. That I say the instruction of the saints, in this
doctrine, is a singular means of promoting their consolation
and establishing their peace, is that which (doubtless with
undervaluing thoughts of all with whom he hath to do) he
hath undertaken to prove. I doubt not but that Mr. Good-
win thought sometimes of the good old rule, 'Sumitemate-
riam vestris,| qui scribitis, equam viribus: etversate diu,quid
ferre recusent quid valeant humeri.' Self-confidence is
hereby settled and fixed with considerations ; and though
Mr. G. in the close of this section, tells us, ' that sundry
godly and seriously religious persons, when they heard this
doctrine published which he now asserts, with their whole
hearts blessed God for it:' yet truly I cannot but question
•whether, yea, I must positively deny that ever any saint of
God received consolation by the doctrine of the saints'apos-
tacy, a lie exceedingly unsuited to the production of any
such effect, any farthei- than that all error whatsoever is apt
to defile and cauterize the conscience, so deceiving it with
senselessness for peace. Perhaps some of Mr. Goodwin's
hearers, who either were so ignorant, or so negligent, as not
to be acquainted with this doctrine before, in the attempts
made for that the propagation of it, by the latter brood of
prelates and Arminians amongst us, upon his delivery of it
with enticing words of human wisdom, helped on by the
venerable esteem they have of his transcendent parts and
abilities, though the cunning of Satan, improving the itchino-
after new doctrines, which is fallen upon the minds and
spirits of many professors in this age, have rejoiced under
the shadow of this bramble, set up to rule in their conore-
gation ; and (according as is the constant manner of all, in
our daysthatare ensnared with any error be it never so per-
nicious) have blessed God for it, professing they never found
rest nor peace before ; yet I no way question for such as
fear the Lord, and are yet bowed down under the weioht.
218 BOCTIIIXE OF THEiSAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
and carried away with the strength of Mr. Goodwin's rhe-
toric for a season, will quickly find a fire proceeding out of
that newly enthroned doctrine, preying upon and consuming
all their joy, peace, and consolation, or (which I rather
hope) a fire proceeding out of tlieir faith (the faith once
delivered to the saints), to the utter confusion and consump-
tion of this bramble scratching error. In the meantime if the
eminent appearance of many thousands of the saints of God
in this nation (whereof many are fallen asleep, and many
continue to this day), testifying and bearing witness to the
joy and consolation they have found, and that upon spi-
ritual demonstrative grounds, in being cast into the mould of
the doctrine of the saints' perseverance for many days, be
of no weight with Mr. Goodwin, I know not why his single
testimony (which yet as to the matter of fact I no way ques-
tion) concerning some few persons by himself seduced into
a persuasion of their apostacy, blessing God for the dis-
covery made to them (the constant practice of all persons in
their first entanglement, in the foulest and grossest errors
whatever), should sway us much to any good liking of it.
The influence of the doctrine of the saints' perseverance
into their consolation, hath been sufficiently already evinced,
when we manifested the support of their faith and love,
the conquest of their fear and troubJes thereby ; so that I
shall not need farther to insist thereon. It was in my
thoughts, indeed, to have handled the nature of gospel con-
solation, that which God is so abundantly willing the heirs
of promise should receive, at large, both as to the nature and
causes of it, the means of its preservation, the oppositions
that lie against it, and by all the considerations of it, to
have manifested, that it is utterly impossible to keep it alive
one moment in the heart of a believer, without the contri-
bution of supportment it receives from the doctrine in hand.
And that those who refuse to receive it, as usually delivered,
indeed have none, nor can have any drop of it, but what is
instilled into them, from and by the power and efficacy,
which secretly in and upon their hearts that truth hath,
which in words they oppose ; all their peace and comfort
being indeed absolutely proportioned to thatwhich the doc-
trine of the saints' perseverance tends to confirm, and to
nothing else. But this disccyii'se growing under my hands
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 219
beyond all thought or expectation, I shall now onlykeeil
close to the removal of the exceptions made against it, and
hasten to a close.
I must not leave this argument, v/ithout taking notice
of the medium, whereby Mr. Goodwin supposeth himself
to have confirmed the truth of the assumption, laid down
at the entrance, or to have manifested 'the good complexion
(as he phrases it) of that nurse he hath provided' for the
consolation'of the saints : a nurse with breasts of flint and a
heart of iron, hath this cruel man provided for them; a nurse
whom God will never admit into his family, nor ever ex-
pose his children's lives to any such wolf, or tiger, as will
certainly starve them, if not devour them ; rather a curst,
yea an accursed stepdame, than a nurse ; who, when the
children ask for bread, gives them a stone ; and when they
beg for fish, gives them a scorpion; a false and treacherous
hirelino-, doino; not the least service for God, but labouring
to stir up strife in his family, to set his poor children, and
their heavenly Father at variance, filling them with hard
thouo'hts of him, as one that takes little or no care for them,
and discouraging them in that obedience, which he requireth
at their hands, continually belieing their Father to theni, and
that in reference to the most desirable excellencies of his
faithfulness, truth, mercy, and grace ; never speaking one
good or comfortable word to them all their days, nor once
urging them to do their duty, but withholding a rod, yea
scorpions over their backs ; and casting the eternal flames
of hell into their faces; this is that sanguine, indeed truly
spiritually bloody complexion of this new nurse, which is
offered to be received in the room of that sad melancholy
piece, of the perseverance of the saints. Thus then he
proceeds:
' The consolation of true believers, depends upon their
obedience, their obedience is furthered by this doctrine, and
therefore their consolation also.'
Ans. What are the springs of true spiritual heavenly con-
solation, the consolation which God is willing believers
should receive, whence it flows, the means of its conti-
nuance and increase, how remote it is from a sole depen-
dency on our own obedience, hath been in part before de-
clared ; but yet if the next assertion can be made good, viz.
220 DOCTRIXE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
* That tlie doctrine of the saints' apostacy, hath a tendency
instituted of God, to the promotion of their obedience and
hohness,' I shall not contend about the other, concerning
the issuing of their consolation from thence. All that really
is offered in the behalf of apostacy, as to its serviceableness
in this kind is, that it is suited to ingenerate in believers
a fear of hell, which will put thera upon all ways of morti-
fying the flesh, and the fruits of it, which otherwise would
bring them thereunto. And is this indeed the great mystery
of the gospel? Is this Christ's way of dealing with his saints?
Or is it not a falling from grace, to return again unto the
law ? Those of whom alone we speak, who are concerned in
this business are all of them taken into the glorious liberty
of the sons of God, are every one of them partakers of that
Spirit with whom is liberty, are all endued with a living
principle of grace, faith, and love, and are constrained by
the love of Christ to live to him, are all under grace and
not under the law, have their sins in some measure begun
to be mortified, and the flesh with the lusts thereof, the old
man, with all his ways and wills crucified by the death and
cross of Christ, brought with their, power and eflicacy by
the Spirit into their hearts, are all delivered from that bond-
age wherein they were for fear of death and hell all their
days, by having Christ made redem])tion unto them. I say
that these persons should be most effectually stirred up to
obedience, by the dread and terror of that iron rod of ven-
geance and hell, and that they should be so, by God's ap-
pointment, is such a new, such another gospel, as if preached
by an angel from heaven, we should not receive. That in-
deed no motive can be taken from hence, or from any tiling
in the doctrine by Mr. Goodwin contended for, suited to the
principle of gospel obedience in the saints, that no sin or
lust whatsoever was ever mortified by it, that it is a clog,
hinderance, and burden, to all saints as far as they have to
do with it, in the ways of God, hath been before demon-
strated; and therefore, leaving it with all the consolation
that it affords, unto those who of God are given up there-
unto, we proceed to the consideration of another argument,
his eighth in this case, which is thus proposed, sect. 37.
'Th;it doctrine which evacuates and turns into weakness
and folly, all the gracious counsels of the Holy Ghost,
EXPLAINED AXD CONFIRMED. 221
which consist partly in the diligent information which he
gives unto the saints from place to place, concerning the
hostile, cruel, and bloody mind and intention of Satan
against them'; partly in detecting and making known all his
subtle stratagems, his plots, methods, and dangerous ma-
chinations against them; partly also in furnishing them with
special weapons of all sorts, whereby they may be able to
grapple with him, and to triumph over him ; partly again in
those frequent admonitions and exhortations, to quit them-
selves like men in resisting him, which are found in the
Scripture ; and lastly in professing his fear lest Satan
should circumvent and deceive them ; that doctrine, I say,
which reflects disparagement and vanity upon all these most
serious^ and gracious applications of the Holy Ghost, must
needs be a doctrine of vanity and error, and consequently that
which opposeth it by a like necessity, a truth ; but such is
the common doctrine of absolute and infallible perseve-
rance.' Ergo.
Ans. Not to engage into any needless contest about ways
of arguing, when the design and strength o^ the argument
is evident, I shall only remark two things upon this.
First, The Holy Ghost professing his fear lest Satan
should bep'uile believers, is a mistake. It was Paul that
was so afraid, not the Holy Ghost, though he wrote that fear
by the appointment and inspiration of the Holy Ghost. The
apostle was jealous lest the saints should by the craft of
Satan be seduced into errors and miscarriages, which yet
argues not their final defection ; this, indeed, he records of
himself; but of the fears of the Holy Ghost, arising from his
uncertainty of those issues of the things and want of power
to prevent the coming on of the things feared, I suppose
there is no mention. And,
Secondly, Tliat the consequent of the supposition in the
inference made upon it, is not so clear to me as to Mr.
Goodwin, viz. ' Suppose any doctrine to be false, whatsoever
doctrine is set up in opposition to it, is true.' I have known,
and so hath Mr. Goodwin also, when the truth hath lain
between opposite doctrines, assaulted by both, entertained
by neither; with these observations I pass the major of this
syllogism, the minor he thus confirms :
'If the saints be in no possibility of being finally over-
222 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVEllAXCE
come by Satan, or the miscarrying in the great and most
important business of their salvation by his snares and sub-
tleties, all that operoseness and diligence of the Holy Ghost,
in those late-mehtioned addressments of his unto them, in
order to their final conquest over Satan, will be found of
very light consequence, of little concernment to them : yea,
if the said addressments of the Holy Ghost, be compared
with the state and condition of the saints, as the said doc-
trince of perseverance representeth and affirmeth it to be,
the utter uselessness and impertinency of them, will much
more evidently appear.*
Alls. \V^hat possibility or not possibility the saints are in
of final apostacy from God, what assurance themselves have,
may have, or have not, concerning their perseverance, with
what is the use of admonitions and exhortations to them in
that condition, hath been already declared ; for the present,
I shall only add, that let their final apostacy, in respect of
the event be never so impossible, yet in the state and con-
dition wherein they are, and from the things which they are
exercised about, with the principles on which they proceed,
and the ways whereby they are led on, considerations enough
ma/ be raised to set forth those exhortations, admonitions,
and encouragements, appointed by the Holy Ghost, to be
used and insisted on in the administration of the word, in
the beauty and splendour of infinite wisdom, love, and kind-
ness. The glory of God being so eminently concerned, as
it is in the obedience and fruitfulness of the saints ; the ho-
nour of the Lord Jesus in this w^orld, with the advancement
and propagation of the gospel, in like manner relating there-
unto ; their own peace lying so much as it doth upon their
close walking with God, the Spirit being so grieved by their
fallinsinto sin, as he is, God so dishonoured, and themselves
exposed to such fearful desertions, darkness, trouble, sor-
row, and disquietments, as they are, upon their being over-
come by the temptations of Satan, and prevailed upon to
turn aside into ways and sins short of total apostacy, and it
being the purpose of'the Lord, to lead them on in obedience,
in ways suitable to that nature, he created them withal, and
that new nature wherewith he hath endued them (both apt
to be wrought upon by motives, exhortations, and persua-
sions), witliout any suchsupposal, as that of final a[)Ostacy;
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 223,
tliere is a sufficient bottom and foundation of exalting the
motives and admonitions insisted on, to the possession of
that glory, of wisdom, and goodness which is their due. But
Mr. Goodwin having borrowed another pageant from tlie re-
monstrants, had a great mind to shew it to the world in its
English dress, and therefore introduces the Holy Ghost,
tlius speaking in the admonitions above pointed at:
'Suppose we then the Holy Ghost should speak thus
unto the saints. Oh ye that truly believe, who by virtue of
the promises of that God that cannot lie, are fully persuaded
and possessed that ye shall be kept by God, by his irresist-
ible grace, in true faith until death ; so that though Satan
should set all his wits on work, and by all his stratagems,
snares, and cunning devices, seek to destroy you ; yea, though
he should entice you away from God, by the allurements of
the world, and entangle you with them again, yea, and should
cause you to run and rush headlong against the light of your
own consciences, into all manner of horrid sins, yet shall all
bis attempts and assaults upon you in every kind be in vain,
and you shall be in never the more danger, or possibility of
perishing : unto you, I say, attend and consider how sore
and dangerous a contest you are like to be engaged in, for
you are to wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities and powers, the governors of this world, and
spiritual wickednesses, against that old serpent the devil, the
great red dragon who was a murderer from the beginning,
and who still goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom
he may devour, who will set himself with all his might, to
thrust you headlong into all manner of sins, and so to sepa-
rate between you and your God for ever; and truly I am
afraid, lest as the serpent by his subtlety deceived Eve, so
your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity which
is in Jesus Christ, lest the tempter should any way tempt
you, and my labour about you be ia vain ; therefore watch,
pray, resist him steadfast in the faith ; take unto you the
whole armour of God, that you may be able to resist in an
evil day, and having done all things stand fast; stand, hav-
ing your loins girt with the girdle of truth, and the breast-
plate of righteousness upon you : woukl such an oration or
speech as this be any way worthy the infinite wisdom of the
Holy Ghost? Or is it not the part of a very weak and sim-
224 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
pie person to admonish a man, and that in a most serious and
solemn manner of a dansfer threatenino- him, or hano-ins: over
his head, and withal to instruct him with great variety qf di-
rection and caution how to escape this danger, when as both
himself knows, and the person admonished knows likewise,
that it is a thing altogether impossible that ever the danger
should befall him, or the evil against which he is so solemnly
cautioned come upon him? Therefore those who make the
Holy Ghost to have part and fellowship in such weakness as
this are most insufferably injurious unto him.'
A)is. To support the stage for to act this part of the pa-
geant in hand upon, there are many supposals fixed by our
author, that are to bear up the weight of the whole, which
upon trial will appear to be arrant false pretences, painted
antics, that have not the least strength or efficacy for the
end and purpose whereunto they are applied.
First, It is supposed that the end of all these admoni-
tions, is merely and solely to prevent the saints from final
apostacy ; and that they are to beware of the wiles and as-
saults of Satan, only lest he prevail over them, to cause them
to depart utterly from God ; that this is supposed in this
discourse is evident, because upon the granting of a promise,
that they shall not be so prevailed against, they are judged
all useless and ridiculous : now who knows not but that Sa-
tan may win now, and in some measure prevail against the
saints, to the dishonour of God, the reproach of the gospel,
grieving of the Spirit, and scandal of the church, although
they fall not totally and finally from God ; and that many
of those admonitions tend to the preservation of believers
from such falls and failings, is more evident than to need
any demonstration by consideration of the particular in-
stances.
Secondly, It supposeth, as is expressed, that believers
may fall into 'all manner of horrid sins and abominations,'
which is the thing m question, and l)y us punctually denied :
whatever their surprisals may be, yet there are sins which
they cannot fall into : and the great abomination of every
sin, that it is committed with the whole heart, and with full
consent, they are not at all e.\:i)osed or liable unto, as hath
been proved.
Thirdly, That there is an inconsistency between promises
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 225
and precepts, in reference to the same object; that God
should promise to work any thing effectually in us, and yet
require it of us is thought ridiculous, and on this account
the great folly here imputedto the discourse framed for the
Holy Ghost, is proposed to consist in this, that God should
exhort us, to watch against the assaults of the devil, and
yet promise that by his grace he will effectually work in us,
and for us, the very same thing; a supposal destructive to
the whole nature of the new covenant, easily disproved by
innumerable instances.
Fourthly, That believers are to be wrought upon to obe-
dience always, whatever the frame of their spirits be, by the
same ways and means ; thence it is that promises, promises
of highest and greatest assurance, are in this discourse,
coupled with cautions of the deepest charge, as though they
must at the same time operate the same way to believers, or
else the Holy Ghost be liable to be traduced, as inconsistent
with himself. When the great variety that is in their spi-
ritual frame and temper, the manifold temptations where-
with they are assaulted, the light and dark places they walk
through &c. give occasion sufficient to the exercising to-
wards them, all the 'piping' and 'mourning' that is provided
for them.
Fifthly, That all believers are assured of their persever-
ance, and that to such a degree as not to fear any apostacy,
or to care what becomes of them (that is assured to pre-
sumption not believing), and therefore are those cautions
and admonitions of the Holy Ghost on that account, tending
to stir up in them any godly care or fear rendered frustrate ;
when Mr. Goodwin himself thinks that very few of them, do
upon any good and abiding foundation, know themselves to
be believers. And we never once supposed that all of them
have assurance of their perseverance, nor any of them upon
the terms here proposed ; all the strength of what is here
insinuated, lies in this, that God gives assurance to men of
the steadfastness and constancy of his love, under supjjosal
of their falling into all manner of abominable sins; which
supposal alone renders an inconsistency between the sense
of the promises we embrace, and that of the admonitions
that are given to the saints charging them to walk heedfully
and to watch diligently against the attempts and assaults of
VOL. Vll. Q
226 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PEKSEVERANCE
Satan. Now this supposal is in itself false and ridiculous :
neither ever did the Lord, nor do we ever say he did, tender
men assurance of his love on such terms ; neither is it pos-
sible for any one for ever to have a true persuasion of his own
perseverance under such notions.
Sixthly, That there is an inconsistency betwixt faithful
promises of attaining an end by the use of means, and ex-
hortation with admonitions to make use of those means; so
that if it be supposed that God promiseth that Satan shall
not in the issue prevail over us, prescribing to us the means
whereby we shall be preserved from his prevalency, it is in
vain to deal with us for the application of ourselves, unto
the use of those means.
Seventhly, It is also supposed that an assurance of the
love of God and the continuance of it to the saints unto the
end, so that they shall be never utterly rejected by him is an
effectual way and means to induce them to carnal and loose
walking, and a negligence in those things which are a pro-
vocation to the eyes of his glory; and therefore, if he promise
faithfully never to leave us nor forsake us, it is an induce-
ment for us to conclude, let the devil now take his swing
and do with us what he pleaseth. To exhort us to take care
for the avoidance of his subtleties and opposition is a thing
altogether ridiculous : the vanity of this supposal, hath been
sufficiently before discovered and itself disproved.
Upon such hypotheses as these, I say, upon such painted
posts, is the whole pageant erected which we are here en-
gaged withal ; and these being easily cast down, the whole
rushes to the ground, in the room whereof, according to our
principles, this following discourse may be supplied.
You that are true believers, called, justified, sanctified, by
the Spirit and blood of Christ, adopted into my family, in-
grafted in and united unto the Son of my love; I know your
weakness, insufficiency, disability, darkness, how that with-
out my Son and continual supply of his Spirit you can do
nothing ; the power of your indwelling sin, is not hid from
me, how with violence it leads you captive to the law thereof;
and though ye do believe, yet I know you have yet also
some unhealed unbelief, and on that account are often over-
whelmed with fears, sorrows, disconsolations, and troubles,
and are ready often to think that your way is passed over
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 227
from me, and your judgment hidden from your God : and in
this condition, I know the assaults, temptations, and ojopo-
sitions of Satan that you are exposed to, how he goes up and
down like a roaring lion seeking to destroy you ; his ways,
methods, wiles and baits (that he lays for you, and whereby
he seeks to destroy you) are many, he acts against you as
a serpent subtilely and wisely ; as a lion dreadfully and fear-
fully, and with snares not of you, by yourselves to be re-
sisted : you have principalities and powers to wrestle withal,
and the darts of the wicked one to defend yourselves against,
wherefore beware of him, be not ignorant of his devices,
stand fast in the faith, take to you the whole armour of God,
resist him, overcome him, cast him out by prayer, and the
blood of the Lamb, watch night and day that you be not
surprised nor seduced (as Eve was) by him, that he turn you
not out of the way into paths leading to destruction, and
thrust you headlong into such sins as will be a dishonour to
me, a grief to my Spirit, a scandal to the church, and bitter-
ness to your own souls ; and as for me, who know your dis-
ability of yourselves to do any of these things, and so to
hold to the end, because it pleased me to love you, and set
my heart upon you, having chosen you before the founda-
tion of the world, that you should be holy and unblameable
before me in love, and having given my only Son unto you,
who is your peace, and through whom you have received the
atonement, with whom I will not deny you or withhold from
you any thing that may safeguard your abiding with me unto
salvation ; I will, through the riches of my grace, work all
your works for you, fulfilling in you all the good pleasure of
my goodness and the work of faith with power ; 1 will tread
down Satan, this cruel, proud, malicious, bloody, enemy of
your souls, under your feet; and though at any time he foil
you, yet ye shall not be cast down, for I will take you up,
and will certainly preserve you by my power, to the end of
your hope, the salvation of your souls ; whatever betide you,
or befall you, I will never leave you, nor forsake you ; the
mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my
kindness shall never be removed from you ; comfort ye, be
of good courage, and run with joy the race that is set be-
fore you.
This, I say, is the language which according to the
Q 2
228 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
tenor of the doctrine whose maintenance we are engaged in,
God speaks to his saints and believers, and if there be folly
and inconsistency found therein, let the Scriptures vindicate
and plead for themselves.
Secondly, For the close of this discourse of our author,
charging this course of procedure with folly, viz. to give
admonition to the use of means, when the end is certainly
determined to issue upon the use of those means, he must
first evince it as to the application of it to the business in
hand, before 1 can close with him in the managing thereof:
for the present I rather think the folly of this charge, as far
as it looks towards the doctrine under consideration to arise
from other things. As,
First, An impertinent comparison instituted betw^een God
and man in their admonitions and dealings with men ; as
though nothing might beseem him in spiritual things of
eternal concernment, but what is squared to the rules of our
proceedings one towards another, in things natural or civil.
And,
Secondly, A false supposal that the end is promised and
assured to any, without or besides the use of means, or walk-
ing according to the rules, precepts, and instructions given
for that purpose, or for attainment of the end so promised.
Now what folly there is to charge men to use means for the
attaining of an end, when they are, altliough exhorted, also
assured, that in their so doing, they shall attain the end
aimed at, is yet under contest ; and may pass for the present
with those other ridiculous supposals, formerly mentioned.
But Mr. Goodwin proceeds farther in the vindication of
this argument, sect. 38.
' And whereas/ saith he, 'they still plead, or pretend ra-
ther, that such admonitions as these lately specified may
well stand with an unconditioned promise of perseverance,
we have formerly shewed, that they are not able to make
good this plea, nor to give any reasonable account of it,
whereas they add that their sense and opinion is not, that
it is a thmg absolutely or every way impossible for true be-
lievers to fall away totally or finally from their faith, but
that they willingly grant that true believers, what through
their own weakness, and what through the subtle baits and
temptations of Satan, may so fall away.
EXPLAIXED AND CONFIRMED. 229
' I answer, But this is but a fig-leaf sought out to cover
the nakedness of their opinion, which hath no strength at
all nor weight in it. For what though it were in a thousand
other respects never so possible for true believers to perish,
yet if it be altogether impossible in such a respect which
overrules all those others, and which will and of necessity
must hinder the coming of it to pass, all those other not-
withstanding, it is to be judged simply and absolutely im-
possible, and all those respects whereby it is pretended pos-
sible are not to be brought into account in such a case.'
Alls. Whether we ra'e able to make good our plea con-
cerning the consistency of admonitions with the promises
of perseverance, Mr. Goodwin is not the sole judge ; neither
do either we or our plea stand or fall at his arbitrement ;
what hath been lately spoken for the reinforcement of that
plea against his exceptions, he may if he please, take time
to consider.
Secondly, For what is now added in this place as a part
of that plea of ours, as it is here proposed we own not ; we
do not grant that true believers may fall away on any ac-
count whatever totally and finally, if the expression, ' may
fall away,' relate to the issue and event ; we say, indeed, that
by the temptations of Satan believers may be prevailed
against, to the committing of many sins, the root whereof
is in themselves, whilst the lust remains in them which
tempteth and ensnareth them, whereby God may be disho-
noured, and their own consciences wounded, which is a suf-
ficient ground and bottom for all the admonitions that are
given them to beware of his deceits, to strengthen them-
selves against his assaults, and to be built upon, though
through the 2;race and faithfulness of God and his o-oodwill
manifested and secured unto them in his covenant and pro-
mises, he can never totally prevail against them.
We say, moreover, that it is not from believers them-
selves, nor any thing in them, nor from any faith that they
have received, that they cannot so fall finally away ; there
being in them a proneness to sin, and the seed of all sin still
remaining, yea a root of bitterness ready to spring up and
trouble them ; but from those outward principles of the will,
purposes, covenant, and promises of God which we have
230 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVKRANCE
formerly insisted on. Farther, that there is no need of
granting any such possibility, taking that term as relating
to the issue and event, and not the internal principle of ope-
ration in men, to manifest the harmony that is between the
admonitions under consideration, and the promises we have
msisted on ; it being sufficiently evinced on other conside-
rations ; so that Mr. Goodwin's ensuing discourse concern-
ing absolute impossibility is not at all related to any thing
that we have asserted.
Thirdly, Neither yet doth the reason by Mr. Goodwin
produced, in any measure convince what he intends, though
we be not concerned therein ; he will not easily persuade us
that that which is possible in any respect, much less in
many, and impossible only in one, is always to be judged
simply and absolutely impossible; much less are we con-
cerned in it, who say that simply and absolutely the falling
away of believers is possible, namely, as the term ' possible'
relates to the principle of operation in them; but in some
respects only it is impossible, that is, not of itself, but in
respect of the external prohibiting cause. It was absolutely
and simply possible, that the bones of our Saviour should
have been broken, in the nature of the thing itself; impos-
sible, in respect of the decree of God ; so are a thousand
things absolutely possible in their own nature, as to the
power of the causes whereby they might be produced, but
impossible in respect of some external prohibiting cause ;
absolutely possible in respect of their proper cause and
principle ; impossible in respect of the event, upon the ac-
count of some external prohibiting cause as was shewed.
So it is in the business in hand ; we assert not any possi-
bility in respect of the event ; as though in the issue it
might so come to pass, that believers should fall totally and
finally from God, which is the thing we oppose ; but grant
it, in respect of the causes of such apostacy, with refer-
ence to the nature of the thing itself; though how the pos-
sibility might be reduced into act Mr. Goodwin cannot de-
clare ; as for the close of this section concerning the abso-
lute, peremptory, irresistible, decree of perseverance which
he ascribes to us as our assertion, when he shall have con-
vinced us of the conditional, non-peremptory, reversible, de-
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 231
cree of God, which he endeavours to introduce in the place
thereof, he may hear more of us, in the meantime fxivofiiv
Sect. 39, 40. He seeks to alleviate the instance com-
monly given of our Saviour Christ, who though assured of
the end (and in respect of whom it was utterly impossible
that his glorious exaltation should not follow in the issue, he
being wholly out of all danger of being detained under the
power of death), yet he laboured, and prayed, and fasted,
and resisted Satan's temptations, and watched against him,
and dealt with him by weapons taken out of the word of
God; and in especial when the devil urged him with the
argument in hand, 'That there is no need of means or the
using of them, when there is a certainty of the end, and an
impossibility that it should otherwise fall out, or the end
not be brought about and accomplished,' as he did when he
tempted him to ' cast himself headlong from a pinnacle of
the temple,' because the ' angels had charge over him, that
not so much as his foot should be hurt against a stone,'
whatever he did; as Satan intimated, which is the tenor
of the argument wherewith we have to do, he returns to
him the very answer that we insist upon, viz. that though
it be the good pleasure of God to bring us to the end we
aim at, yet are we not to tempt him by a neglect of the
means which he hath appointed ; it is true, there are argu-
ments used to us that could have no place with Christ, be-
ing taken from the estate and condition of infirmity and
weakness through sin, wherein we are ; which is a ground
only of an inference, that if Christ who was 'holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners,' did yet watch and pray
and contend against Satan, much more should we do so.
But this doth not at all take off from the parity of reason
that is in the case of diligent using of the means for the
compassing of the end, that in some respect is under an im-
possibility of not being accomplished ; for the removal of
this instance Mr. Goodwin enters into a large discourse of
the cause and reason vesting the Lord Christ with an immu-
tability in good, and how it is not competent to any crea-
ture ; which that it is, never entered into the thoughts of
any to assert that I ever heard of; nor is it of the least im-
portance to the removal of our instance as to its servicea-
232 UOCTRIXE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
bleness unto the end, for which it is produced ; he tells us
also, * That in case men be caused necessitatingly and una-
voidably to act righteously, it will take away all rewarda-
bleness from their actings ; and the reason is, because such
a necessitatino- of them, makes them merely passive, they
having not any internal principle of their own to contract
such a necessity ;' which discourse is pursued with many
other words to the same purpose ; and a discourse it is,
First, exceeding irrelative to the business in hand ; there
is not any thing now under consideration, that should mi-
nister occasion at all, to consider the manner of our yielding
obedience, and the way of God's grace, in the bringing forth
the fruits thereof, but only of the consistency that is between
admonitions for the using of the means, when it is supposed
impossible that the end prevented by them should ever come
to pass, which may, or may not be so, whatever be the
manner and way of our yielding obedience upon the exer-
tion of the efficacy of the grace of God ; diversion is one of
Mr. Goodwin's ordinary ways of warding those blows, which
he is not able to bear.
Secondly, False charging a crime on the doctrine which
he doth oppose whereof it is not guilty ; neither it, nor they
that maintain it, affirming that there is a necessitation upon
the wills of men by the grace of God, such a necessitation
as should in the least prejudice their freedom, or cause them
to elicit their acts as principles natural and necessary; all
the necessity ascribed by them to the efficacy of the opera-
tion of the grace of God, respects only the event ; they say
it is necessary that the good be done, which God works in
us by his grace, when he works it in usj but for the manner
of its doing, they say, it is wrought suitably to the state and
condition of the internal principle whence it is to proceed,
and doth so, and of the agents whereby it is wrought, which
are free. Neither do they say that good is not wrought by
any native and inward principle that is in men, unless they
will allow no principle to be native but what is in them by
nature ; and then indeed they say, that though naturally
and physically there is, yet morally and spiritually there is
not in them any native principle to that which is spiritually
good; seeing in that sense, 'no good thing dwells in men.'
But if it may suffice to evince that they work from a native
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 233
inward principle, that their wills which are their natural
faculties, quickened, improved and heightened, by inward,
indwelling habits of grace, properly theirs when bestowed
on them, are the principles of all their actings, then they as-
sert them to work no less from a native internal principle
than Christ himself did ; so that notwithstanding this diver-
sion given in to supply the absence of an answer, the in-
stance as to that alone, wherein the parallel was intended,
stands unmoved, and Mr. Goodwin's whole charge of folly
and inconsistency on the proceeding of the Holy Ghost
falls to the ground, which is the issue of his eighth argu-
ment in this case ; his last follows.
The last argument which he proposeth sect. 41. and ends
his chapter withal, is faint, and as the droppings after a
shower, will easily be blown over. He thus proposeth it :
'That doctrine which naturally and directly tendeth to
beget and foment jealousies, and evil surmises between bre-
thren in Christ, or such as ought cordially to love, reve-
rence, and honour one another, is not confederate with the
gospel, nor from God, and consequently that which contra-
dicteth it must needs be a truth : the common doctrine of un-
questionable and unconditional perseverance, is a doctrine
of this tendency, apt to beget and foment jealousies, sus-
picions and evil surmises between brethren, or such as
ought to love and respect one the other as brethren in
Christ.' Ergo.
A?is. Not to take notice of any thing by the by, which
sundry expressions and one inference at the least, in this ar-
gument do readily administer occasion unto ; I await the
proof of the minor, which in the following discourse
amounts to this: 'that judging all those who fall finally
away not to have been true believers, we cannot but have
evil surmises, of all that stand, that they are not true be-
lievers, seeing as good as they have fallen away ; hence jea-
lousies of their hypocrisy will arise.' And he tells us for his
part, he knows no Christian in the world, that he hath more
reason to judge a true believer, than he had to judge some
who are turned wretched apostates. To which I say briefly.
First, I doubt not but Mr. Goodwin knows full well, that
this is not a rule given us to make a judgment of believers
by, with whom we walk, and towards whom it is required
234 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE
we bear " * love without dissimulation,' toward such as shew
us their faith by their works; our rule of walking from the
principle of love and charity is laid down in 1 Cor. xiii. And
if all that any man knows at this day professors in this
world, should turn apostates, save only one, and he had
reckoned that one, and them that are apostatized, before
their apostacy, of the same rank of believers, and had no
evil thoughts of that one above the rest, he was bound with-
out any evil surmises to believe all things, and to hope all
things, and not to let go his sincere love towards that one, em-
bracing of him, delighting in him, holding communion with
him to his lives end without suspicion of hypocrisy, or other
hard thoughts of him unless he also should degenerate.
It is said, John ii, 23. that many believed on Christ because
of the profession of faith that they made ; and, John vi. 34.
they pray earnestly to be fed with the bread of life ; so that
they were accounted among his disciples, ver. 60, and yet
upon a temptation they left our Saviour, and walked no
more with him, ver. 66. Now notwithstanding the profession
of these men our Saviour plainly says, that they believed not,
ver. 64. They falling thus away who had professed to be-
lieve, and were accounted as believers, so called and named
among the disciples of Christ, and Christ declaring on the
account of their apostacy, that indeed they did never be-
lieve, how was it that the remaining twelve had not hard
thoughts and jealousies one of another (especially consi-
dering that there was one hypocrite still left among them),
whether they had true faith or no, seeing our Saviour had
declared that those who so fell off, as those before-men-
tioned, had none? Doubtless they were instructed to walk
by a better and straighter rule, than that Mr. Goodwin here
assigns to believers ; let who will or can fall away, whilst
we are taught of God to love one another, and are acted by
the principle of love which thinks no evil, and do contend
against evil surmises as the works of the flesh ; there is not
any thing in the least attending the discovery of one man's
hypocrisy, to work us to a persuasion that another (not in
any thing discovered) is so also ; that because we see some
goodly house fall under storms and temptations to the
ground, and so manifest itself to have been built on the
* Rom. xii. 18.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 235
sand, that therefore we must conclude that those which-
stand, are not built upon the rock, is not suited to any prin-
ciple or rule that our master hath given us to walk by, in
order to the exercise of that love, which he calleth for in us
towards one another.
Secondly, I say this way of proceeding in our thoughts
and judgments doth the Holy Ghost lead us to, 1 John ii.
19. The apostle, giving an account of some who had for-
merly walked with him in the profession of the faith, and of
the fellowship which they had with the Father and Son, fell
away from Christ into an opposition against him, so far as
to deserve the title of antichrists, having not only forsaken
the gospel, but making it also their business to oppose it,
and to seduce others from the simplicity of the same ; these
he informs the scattered believers of the Jews were apos-
tates, having formerly walked with them, but deserted their
fellowship, and thereby manifested themselves never to have
been true believers, nor ever indeed to have had fellowship
with the Father and the Son, no more than they of whom our
Saviour spake in the place before-mentioned ; and yet
doubtless the apostle may not be supposed to lay a foun-
dation for jealousies, evil suspicions, and surmises among
believers, though he plainly and evidently affirm that those
who fall away were never true believers, and that if they
had been so, they would have continued in their faith and
fellowship with the people of God. 'They went out from
us,' saith he, 'but they were not of us ; for if they had been of
us, they would (no doubt) have continued with us; but they
went out, that they might be made manifest that they were
not all of us.'
A passage, by the way, clearly confirming the main of the
doctrine we have hitherto insisted on ; and therefore I shall
turn aside, before I come to the close of this chapter, having
this occasion administered, to vindicate it from the ex-
ceptions Mr. Goodwin gives in against the testimony it
bears in this case.
The argument that it readily furnisheth us withal, is of
this import ; * If all they who fall away totally from the fel-
lowship and society of the church and saints of God, what-
ever their profession were before that apostacy, were never
true believers, and are thereby manifested never to have
23G DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE
been so, then those who are true believers cannot fall away :'
but the first is true, therefore the latter ; the words are so
disposed as to be cast into an hypothetical proposition,
which virtually includes a double argument as every discreet
axiom doth ; it is not thus, therefore thus ; if true believers
might so depart and apostatize as those here mentioned, no
unquestionable proof could be drawn from such apostacy,
that men were never true believers, which yet is plainly in-
sisted on, in the text.
Mr. Goodwin, cap. 10. sect. 21— 24, pp. 189—192. ga-
thers up sundry exceptions from the remonstrants which
(as they also did) he opposeth to this interpretation of the
words, and the inferences from them insisted on ; I shall
briefly consider and remove them in that order as by him
they are laid down. He saith.
First, ' This inference presumeth many things, for which
neither it, nor any the authors of it, will ever be able to give
any good security of proof. As
' First, That this phrase, They were not of us, imports
that they were never true believers ; this certainly can never
be proved, because there is another sense, and this every
whit as proper to the words, and more commodious for the
context and scope of the place, which may be given of them,
as we shall see anon.'
Ans. That there is not any thing presumed for the
eduction of the inference proposed, but what is either di-,
rectly expressed, or evidently included, in the words of the
text, will appear in the farther consideration of what Mr.
Goodwin hath to offer to the contrary. That expression.
They were not of us, imports evidently, that they were not
of them, in the fellowship and communion which he was
now exhorting believers to continue and abide in. He tells
them at the head of this discourse, cap. 1. 3. that the end of
his writing to them, was to draw them into, and keep them
in communion with himself, and the saints with him ; which
communion or fellowship, he tells them, * they had with the
Father and the Son.' But as for the persons, of whom in
these words he is' speaking to them, describing them by
their former and present condition, with the causes of it, he
tells them, that though they abode with them for a season,
yet they were never of them, as to the communion and fel-
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 237
lowship they had with the Father and Son, and so were never
true members of the church : the only reason Mr. Goodwin
gives to invalidate this sense of the words is, that he is
able to give another meaning of them (in his own judgment)
more projDcr to the words, and more commodious to the
scope of the place : which, w'hether it have any more efficacy
to take in the force and evidence of the interpretation given,
lying plain and clear in the first view of the words and con-
text, than it hath to evade the eduction of any truth what-
ever, from any place of Scripture whatever, seeing some or
other suppose themselves able to give another sense of the
words, let the reader judge. But he adds,
* Secondly, That this expression. They were of us, signi-
fies that they were true believers is presumed ; of the un-
certainty of this supposition we shall,' saith he, 'give the like
account.'
Ans. When we come to take Mr. Goodwin's farther ac-
count, we shall be able (I make no doubt) to reckon with
him, and to discharge his bill ; in the meantime, we say,
that supposition, ' if they had been of us' (whence our in-
ference in made), evidently includes a fellowship and com-
munion with the apostle and true believers in their fellow-
ship with God, which is asserted as a certain foundation
of men's abidino- in the communion of the saints.
But, says he,
* Thirdly, It is supposed, that these words. They went
cut from us, signify their final defection, or abdication of
the apostle's communion, or their total and final renunciation
of Christ, his church, and gospel; this supposition hath no
bottom at all, or colour for it.'
Ans. Divide not the words from their coherence, and
the intendment of the place, and the signification denied is
too evident and clear for any one, with the least colour of
reason, to rise up against it ; 'they went out,' so out from the
communion of the church, as to become antichrists, op-
posers of Christ, and seducers from him, and certainly in so
doing, did totally desert the communion of the apostle, re-
nounce the Lord Christ, as by him preached, and forsook
utterly both church and gospel, as to any fellowship with
the one or the other : and we know full well, what is the
bottom of this and the like assertions, 'that such and such
238 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXTS' PERSEVERANCE
things have no bottom at all ;' which never yet failed Mr.
Goodwin at his need.
' Fourthly,' saith he, ' It is supposed that this clause. They
would no doubt have continued with us, signifies they would
have continued in the same faith, wherein we persevere and
continue ; nor is there,' saith he, ' any competent reason to
enforce this sense of those words, because neither doth the
grammatical tenor of them require it, and much less the
scope of the passage.'
j4iis. The fellowship John invited believers unto, and to
continue in (as hath often been observed with him), and the
saints with him, was that which they held with the Father
and the Son, to continue with them therein, in the literal
grammatical sense of the words, is to continue in the faith :
it being faith whereby they have that fellowship or com-
munion ; this also is evident from the scope of the whole
passage, and is here only impotently denied. But, saith he,
' Fifthly, The said inference supposeth that John cer-
tainly knew that all those who for the present remained in
his communion, were true believers ; for, if they were not
true believers, they that were gone out from them in the
sense contended for, might be said to be of them, that is,
persons of the same condition with them ; but how impro-
bable this is, I mean that John should infallibly know, that
all those who has yet continued with them, were true be-
lievers, I refer to consideration.'
Am. Had Mr. Goodwin a little poised this passage before
he took it up, perhaps he would have cast it away, as an
useless trifle ; but his masters having insisted on it, per-
haps he thought it not meet to question their judgments in
tb3 least, for fear of being at liberty to deal so with them
in matters of greater importance. I say then that there is
not the least colour for any such supposal from the in-
ference we make from the text ; nor is there any thing of
that nature intimated, or suggested in the words, or argu-
ment from them ; the body of them whom the apostates for-
sook, were true believers ; and their abiding in the fellow-
ship of the saints, was a manifestation of it sufficient for
them to be owned as such, which the others manifested
themselves never to have been, by their apostacy. But,
saith he.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 239
'Sixthly, The inference under contest yet farther supposeth,
that John certainly knew, that they who were now gone out
from them, neither were now, nor eVer before, true believers;
yea, and that he certainly knew this by their departure or
going out from them.'
Ans. This is the very thing that the apostle affirms, that
he certainly knew those apostates never to have been true
believers, and that by their apostacy, or falling totally from
the gospel, becoming seducers and opposers of Christ ; let
him argue it out with the Holy Ghost, if he can, whose plain
and clear expression this is, and that confirmed by the en-
suing argument of the perseverance of them who were true
believers, and whose fellowship is with the saints, in their
communion with the Father and the Son ; wherefore, saith he,
' Lastly, It presumeth yet farther, that all true believers do
always abide in the external communion of the church; and
that when men do not so abide they plainly declare herein,
that they never were true believers, which is not only a ma-
nifest untruth, but expressly contrary to the doctrine itself
of those men who assert the inference; for they teach (as we
heard before) that a true believer may fall so foully and so
far, that the church, according to the command of Christ,
may be constrained to testify that she cannot tolerate them
in her external communion, nor that ever they shall have
any part or portion in the kingdom of Christ, unless they
repent ; doubtless to be cast out of the church according to
the institution and command of Christ (who commands no
such thing but upon very heinous and high unchristian mis-
demeanours) is of every whit as sad importance, as a volun-
tary desertion of the churches' communion can be for a
season.'
Ans. It supposeth that no true believers fall so off from
the church, as to become antichrists, opposers of Christ and
the church, so as to deny that Christ is come in the flesh,
which was the great business of the antichrists in those
days ; it is true, and granted by us, that a true believer may
forsake the outward communion of some particular church
for a season, yea, and that upon his irregular walking and
not according to the rule of Christ, he may, by the authority
of such a church, be rejected from its communion for his
amendment and recovery into the right way, of which be-
240 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXT.s" PERSEVERANCE
fore : but that a true believer can voluntarily desert the
communion of the saints, and become an antichrist, that
this text denies, and we from it, and the many other wit-
nesses of the same truth, that have been produced: notwith-
standing then all Mr. Goodwin's exceptions, there is nothing
presumed in the inference, we make from these words, but
what is either expressly contained, or evidently included in
them.
But Mr. Goodwin will not thus give over; he prefers his
exceptions to this testimony in another whole section ; which,
because the demonstration of the truth in hand from this
, place, though here handled by the by, is of great import-
ance, and such as by its single strength is sufficient utterly
to cast to the ground the figment set up in opposition to it,
I shall present entirely to the reader (that our author may be
heard out and nothing omitted that he pleads, for the waving
of the force of the argument in hand) that whole section.
Thus then he proceeds :
* Suppose that these two suppositions be granted to the
' inference makers; first, that this phrase, To go out from us,
signifies voluntarily to forsake the society and communion
of Christians ; and secondly, that this expression. To be of
us, signifies true and inward communion with those from
whom they went out, yet will not these contributions suffice,
for the firm building of the said inference; the reason is,
because the apostle expressly saith, that they would have
continued with us; not that they would have continued
such as they were, in respect of the truth or essence of their
faith ; and if the apostle's scope in this place were to prove or
affirm that they who are once true Christians, or believers,
always continue such; then, when he saith they would have
continued with us, he must of necessity mean, either that
they would have continued faithful as we continue faithful,
or else that they would have continued always in our society,
or in the profession of Christianity : but that neither of these
senses are of any tolerable consistency, is evident by the light
of this consideration; viz. That the apostle then must have
known, that the person he speaks of, and who went out from
them, neither were nor ever had been true Christian believers,
when they went thus from them ; now if he had this know-
ledge of them, it must be supposed either that he had it by
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 241
extraordinary revelation (but this is very improbable, and
howsoever cannot be proved), or else that he gained and
obtained it by their departure or going out from them ; but
that this could be no sufficient argument or ground to beget
any such knowledge in the apostle concerning them, is evi-
dent from hence, because it may very easily, and doth very
frequently come to pass, that they who are true Christians,
do not always continue in the society to which they have
joined themselves, no nor yet in the external profession of
Christianity itself; yea, our opposers themselves, frequently
and without scruple teach, that even true believers them-
selves, may through fear, or shame, or extremity of suffer-
ings, be brought to deny Christ, and without any danger of
being shipwrecked of their faith, forbear making a profession
of the name of Christ afterward.'
Alls. First, What is meant and intended by those expres-
sions 'went out from us,' and 'to be of us' hath been declared;
we are not to teach the Holy Ghost to speak ; whatever
conceit we may have of our own abilities, when we deal with
worms of the earth like ourselves, to his will, to his expres-
sions, we must vail and submit; he is pleased to phrase their
continuance in the faith, their 'continuance with us,' that is,
with the saints in the fellowship and communion of the gos-
pel, which they had with God in Christ ; the expression is
clear and evident to the purpose in hand, and there is no con-
tending against it.
Secondly, We do not say, that it is the direct scope and
intent of the apostle in this place, to prove that those who
are true believers cannot fall away and depart from the
faith, which he afterward doth to the purpose, chap. iii. 9.
but his mind and intendment was, to manifest, that those
who forsake the society of Christians, and become anti-
christs and seducers, were indeed never true believers ;
using the other hypothesis as a medium for the confirmation
of this assertion.
Thirdly, By that phrase, they ' would have continued with
us,' the apostle intends their continuance in the society and
fellowship of the faithful by the profession of Jesus Christ,
whom now they opposed, denying him to be come in the
flesh ; that is, they would not have so fallen oif, as they have
done, upon the account of the estate and condition of true
VOL. VII. E
242 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS PERSEVERANCE
■*
believers and real saints, who are kept by the power of God
to salvation.
Fourthly, The apostle did know, and professed himself
to know, that they were not, nor ever had been true believers,
when they were once so gone out from them, as they went;
as our Saviour Christ professed them not to have been true
believers, who followed him for awhile, were called and ac-
counted his disciples, when they fell in an hour of tempta-
tion ; neither have we the least reason to suppose, that the
apostle had this knowledge by revelation, seeing the thing
itself in reference and proportion to the principles he lays
down of the continuance of believers, did openly proclaim it.
Fifthly, That true Christians or believers can so fall
away from the society of the saints as those here mentioned
did, is denied ; and a grant of it ought not to be begged at
our hands; it is true, that (as was before granted) a true be-
liever may for a season desert the communion or fellowship
of a church wherein he hath walked, and that causelessly;
yea, he may be surprised through infirmity to deny under
mighty temptations, in words for a moment the Lord Christ,
whom yet his heart loves and honours, as in the case of
Peter was too evident, but that such a one may forsake the
external profession of Christianity, or cease profession-mak-
ing, and betake himself to a contrary interest, opposing
Christ and his ways, as those here insisted on did; that is
denied, and not the least attempt of proof made to the con-
trary.
Whilst I was upon consideration of these exceptions of
Mr. Goodwin's to our testimony from this text of Scripture
by us insisted on, there came to my hands his exposition on
the 9th chapter to the Romans ; in the epistle whereof to
the reader, he is pleased, sect. 6, studiously to wave the im-
putation of having borrowed tliis exposition from Arminius
and his followers : an apology perhaps unworthy his pru-
dence, and great abilities ; which testimony yet I fear, by
having cast an eye on the body of the discourse, will scarcely
be received by his reader, without the help of that vulgar
proverb 'good wits jump:' but yet on that occasion I can-
not but say, however he hath dealt in that treatise, this dis-
course I have under consideration is purely translated from
them, the condition of very much of what hath been already
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 243
considered, having the same which I had there thought to
have manifested, by placing their Latin against his English
in the margin : but these things are personal, not belong-
ing to the cause in hand. Mr. G. is sufficiently known to have
abilities of his own, such as wherewith he hath done (in
sundry particulars) considerable service to the truth, as
sometimes they have been unhappily engaged in ways of
a contrary nature and tendency.
It being evident from these considerations that our
author is not able in the least to take off this witness from
speaking home to the very heart of the cause in hand, that
it may not seem to be weakened and impaired by him in the
least : I shall farther consider that diversion which he would
entice the words unto, from their proper channel and intend-
ment, and so leave the apostacy of the saints dead at the foot
of it. He gives us then, (sect. 23, 24.) an exposition of this
place of Scripture, upon the rack whereof, it seems not to
speak what formerly we received from its mouth : for the
occasion of the words, he says,
' For the true meaning of this place, it is to be considered
that the apostle's intent in the words was to prevent or heal
an offence, that weak Christians might take at the doctrine
which was taught and spread abroad by those antichrists or
antichristian teachers, spoken of in the former verse ; and
they are said to have been many, and that especially be-
cause they had sometimes lived and conversed with the
apostles themselves in Christian churches, and had professed
the same faith and doctrine with them ; by reason hereof
some Christians not so considerate or judicious as others,
might possibly think or conceive, that surely all things were
not well with the apostles, and those Christian societies with
which they consorted ; there was something not as it ought
to have been, either in doctrine or manners, or both, which
ministered an occasion to these men to break communion
with them, and to leave them.'
Ans. First, The intendment of the apostle in the context,
is evidently to caution believers against seducers, acquaint-
ing them also with the sweet and gracious provision that
God had made for their preservation, in the abiding, teach-
ing, anointing, bestowed, on them : in the verse under pre-
sent consideration, he gives them a description of the per-
il 2
244 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
sons that did seduce them, in respect of their present state
and condition ; they were apostates ; who, though they had
sometimes made profession of the faith, yet indeed were
never true believers, nor had any. fellowship with Jesus
Christ, as he and the saints had, which also they had abun-
dantly manifested by their open apostacy, and ensuing op-
position to the doctrine of the gospel, and the eternal life
manifested therein.
Secondly, That any Christians whatsoever, from the con-
sideration of these seducers falling away did entertain any
suspicion that all things were not well in that society of
which the apostle speaks (not with the apostles which were
all dead, himself only excepted, when John wrote this epis-
tle), either as to doctrine or manners, so supposing them to
take part with the apostates in their departure, is a surmise
whereunto there is not any thing in the least contributed
in the text or context, nor any thing like to it, being a mere
invention of our author, found out to serve this turn, and
confidently without any induction looking that way, or at-
tempt of proof, imposed upon his credulous reader; if men
may assume to themselves a liberty of creating occasions of
words, discourses, or expressions in the Scripture, no manner
of way insinuated nor suggested therein, they may wTest it
to what they please, and confirm whatever they have a mind
unto.
This false foundation being laid, he proceeds to build
upon it, and suitably thereunto feigns the apostle to speak
what never entered into his heart, and unto that whereof he
had no occasion administered.
' To this,' saith he, ' the apostle answereth partly by con-
cession, partly by exception; first by concession, in those
words. They went out from us; which words do not so much
import their utter declining or forsaking the apostles' com-
munion, as the advantage or opportunity which they had to
gain credit and respect, both to the doctrine and persons
among professors of Christianity in the world ; inasmuch as
they came forth from the apostles themselves as men sent
and commissioned by them to teach ; the same phrase is
used in this sense, and with the same import where the apo-
stles write thus to the brethren of the Gentiles ; Acts xv. 24.
Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain that went out from
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 2A5
US have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, say-
ing, You must be circumcised and keep the law, to whom we
gave no such commandment ; so that in this clause, They
went out from us, the apostle grants ; first. That those an-
tichristian teachers had indeed for a time held communion
with them ; and secondly. That hereby they had the greater
opportunity, of doing harm in the world, by their false doc-
trines. But secondly. He answers farther by way of ex-
ception. But they were not of us, whilst yet they conversed
with us, they were not men of the same spirit and principles
with us ; we walked in the profession of the gospel, with
single and upright hearts, not aiming at any singular great-
ness, or worldly accommodations in one kind or other; these
men loved this present world, and when they found the sim-
plicity of the gospel would not accommodate them to their
minds, they brake with us, and with the truth of the gospel
itself at once.'
Jus. First, I suppose it is evident, at the first view, that
this new gloss of the apostle's words is inconsistent with
that, which v/as proposed for the occasion of them in the
words foregoing ; there an aspersion is said to be cast upon
the churches and societies whereof the apostle speaks, from
the departure of these seducers from them, as though they
were not sound in faith or manners ; here an insinuation
quite of another tendency is suggested, as though these
persons found continuance in their teachings and seductions,
from the society and communion which they had had with
the apostles ; as though they had pretended to come from
them by commission, and so instead of casting reproach
upon them by their departure, did assume authority to
themselves, by their having been with them. But to the thing
itself I say.
Secondly, That the apostle is not answering any ob-
jection, but describing the state and condition of the anti-
christs and seducers, concerning whom and their seduction
he cautioneth believers, hath been formerly beyond contra-
diction manifested and maintained ; that expression, then,
* they went out from us,' is not an answer (by concession) to
an objection, but a description of seducers by their apostacy ;
which words also in their regard to the persons as before by
him described, do manifest their utter declining and forsaking
246 DOCTRINE OF THE SAlXTs' PERSE VEIl A NCE
the communion of the saints, they so going from them, as
also going into an opposition to the doctrme of the gospel.
Thirdly, That the apostle here insinuates an advantage
these antichrists had, to seduce from their former commu-
nion with him (a thing not in the least suggested, as was
observed, in the occasion of the words, as laid down
by Mr. Goodwin himself), is proved from the use of the
words, * they went out from us ;' Acts xv. 24. Whence this
undeniable argument may be educed. Some who went
out from the apostle, had repute and authority in their
preaching thereby ; these antichrists went out from the
apostle, therefore they had repute and authority thereby.
Younger men than either Mr. Goodwin or myself, know well
enough what to make of this argument; besides, though
there be an agreement in that one expression, all the neigh-
bouring parts of the description, manifest that in the things
themselves, there and here pointed at, there is no affinity :
those in the Acts pretended to abide still in the ' communion
and faith of the apostles,' these here expressively departed
both from the one and the other, to an opposition of them
both : the former seemed to have pretended a commission
from the apostles; these, according to Mr. Goodwin himself,
did so far declare against them, that it was a scandal to
some, fearing that all had not been well among the apostles.
Fourthly, That which is called an answer by way of ex-
ception, as in it lies the expression of it so used upon the
matter, is as much as we urge from these words ; the import
of them is said to be, * they were not of us, though they
were with us, yet they were not such as we are, did not
walk in that uprightness of heart as we do, they were not
men of the same principles, and spirit with us ;' that is, they
were not true, thorough, sincere, and sound believers at all,
no not while they conversed with the apostles. Now evident
it is that in those words, as is manifest by the assuming of
them again for the use of an inference ensuing, ' for if they
had been of us, they would have continued with us,' the
apostle yields a reason and account, how they came to apos-
tatize and fall to the opposition of the gospel from the
profession wherein they walked ; it was because they were
not men of thorough and sound principles, true believers ;
and consequently, he supposcth and implicth, that if they
EXPLAINED AXD CONFIRMED.^ 247
liad been so they would not, they couhl not, have so upois-
tatized ; for if tliey might, there had been no weight in the
account given of the reason of their revolt.
In what follows, that these v/ords, ' but they were not of
US, do not necessarily imply they were believers formerly,
but perhaps they had been so, and were before fallen away,
being choked by the cares of the world ;' an observation is
insinuated, directly opposite to the apostle's design, and
such as makes his whole discourse ridiculous. An account
lie gives of men's falling away from the faith, and tells them
it is because, though they have been professors, yet they
were never true believers; yea but perhaps they were true
believers, and then fell avv-ay, and after that fell away ; that
is, they fell from the faith, and then fell from the faith ; for
that is plainly ijitimated in, and is the sense of this doubty
observation.
But to proceed with his exposition ; he says, * It follows.
For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have con
tinned with us ; in these words the apostle gives a reason of
his exception, telling them to whom he writes that this
was a sign and argument that those antichristian teachers,
were not of them in the sense declared ; viz. That they did
not continue with them ; that is, they quitted their former
intimacy and converse with the apostles, refused to steer
the same course, to walk by the same principles, any longer
with them, which, saith he, doubtless they would not have
done, had they been as sincerely affected towards Jesus
Christ and the gospel as we : by which assertion John
plainly vindicated himself and the Christian churches of his
communion, from giving any just occasion of offence unto
those men, whereby they should be any ways induced to
forsake them, and resolves their unworthy departure of this
kind into their own carnal and corrupt hearts, which lusted
after some fleshly accommodations and contentments, that
were not to be obtained or enjoyed in a sincere profession
of the gospel with the apostles, and those who were perfect
of heart with them.'
Ans. First, That no aspersion was cast on John, or the
churches of his communion by the apostacy of the anti-
christs, of whom he speaks, from which he should need to
vindicate himself and them, was before declared, There
248 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE
was not, indeed, nor possibly could be, the least occasion
for any surmise of evil concerning them from whom men
departed, in turning ungodly opposers of Christ ; for any
thing that is here offered, it is but an obscuring of the light
that breaks forth from the words, for the discerning of the
truth in hand ; it is grnnted that the apostle manifests, that
they were not of them, that is, true, upright, sound believers,
that walked with a right foot in the doctrine of the gospel,
because they forsook the communion of the saints, to fall
into the condition of antichristianism, wherein they were
now engaged. Now if this be an argument that a man was
never a true believer, in the highest profession that he makes,
because he falls from it and forsakes it, certainly those that
are true believers, cannot so fall from their steadfastness ; or
the argument will be of no evidence or conviction at all ;
neither is any thing here offered by Mr. Goodwin, but what
upon a thorough consideration, doth confirm the inferences
we insist upon, and make to the work in hand : truth will
at one time or other, lead captive those who are most skilful
in their rebellion against it.
What is added, sect. 24., concerning the righteous judg-
ment of God, and the gracious tendency of his dispensations
to his church's use, in suffering these wretches so to dis-
cover themselves, and be manifested what they were, I op-
pose not. The discovery that was made, was of what they
had been before ; that is, not true believers, and not what now
they were : yea, by what they now shewed themselves to be,
was made manifest what before they were ; words of the like
import you have, 1 Cor. xi. 19. * For there must be also
heresies among you, that they which are approved may be
made manifest among you ;' as here those who fall away are
manifested to be corrupt, so there are those who abide to be
sincere.
From what hath been occasionally spoken of the intend-
ment and scope of this place, of the design which the apos-
tle had in hand, of the direct sense of the words themselves,
Mr. Goodwin's exceptions to our interpretation of the words
and inferences from it being wholly removed, and his expo-
sition which he advanceth in the room of that insisted on,
manifested to be, as to the occasion and scope of the place
assigned, utterly foreign unto it, and as to explication of the
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 249
particulars of it, not of any strength or consistency for the
obscuring of the true sense and meaning of the place, in the
eye of an intelligent reader ; it is evidently concluded beyond
all colourable contradiction, that those who are true be-
lievers indeed, having obtained communion with the Father
and his Son Christ Jesus, cannot fall into a total relinquish-
ment of Christ, or of the faith of the gospel, so as to have no
portion nor interest in the communion they formerly enjoyed.
To return to Mr. Goodwin's close of this 13th chapter,
and nine arguments, as he calls them, from v/hich he labours
to evince the apostacy of believers, he shuts up the whole
with a declamation against, and reviling of the doctrine he
opposeth, with many opprobrious and reproachful expres-
sions ; calling it an impostor, and an appearance of Satan in
the likeness of an angel of light, with such like terms of re-
proach, as his rhetoric at every turn is ready to furnish him
withal ; threatening it farther, with calling it in question be-
fore I know not how many learned men of all sorts, and to
disprove it by their testimony concerning it ; and so all that
is required for its destruction is, or shall be speedily des-
patched. God knows how to defend his truth, and as he
hath done this in particular, against as fierce assaults as any
Mr. Goodwin hath made, or is like to make against it, so I
no way doubt he will continue to do. It is not the first
time, that it hath been conformable to its author ; in under-
going the contradiction of men, and being laden with re-
proaches, and crucified among the theivish principles of
error and profaneness. Hitherto it hath not wanted in due
time its resurrection, and that continually with a new glory,
and an added estimation to what before it obtained among*
the saints of God ; and I no way doubt, but that it will grow
more and more, until the perfect day, when those opinions
and inventions of men, derogatory to the grace and cove-
nant of God, his truth, unchangeableness, and faithfulness,
which now make long their shades to eclipse the beauty
and lustre of it, shall consume and vanish away before its
brightness. In which persuasion I doubt not, but the rea-
der will be confirmed with me, upon the farther considera-
tion of what Mr. Goodwin's endeavours are in opposition
thereto, wherewith now by the grace of God, contrary to my
first intendment, I shall proceed.
250 DOCTRINE 01' THE SAlNTs' PEUSEVEKAXCE
CHAP. XVII.
The cause of proceeding in this chapter. Mr. G.'s attempt, chap. 1-2. of his
book. Of the preface to Mr. G.'s discourse. Whether doctrine renders
men proud and presumptuous. Mr. G. 's rule ofjudfjiug ofdoct rines culled
to the rule. Doctrine prettndiuy to promote godliness, Loicfar an arr/utucut
of the truth. BIr. G.'s pretended advantayes injudginy of truths examined.
The first, of his knoivledgeof the general course of the Scriptures, Of the
experiences of his own heart. AndJiis observations of the ivays of otlters.
Of his rational abilities. Ezck. xviii. 24, 25. proposed to consideration.
Mr. G.'s sense of this place. The words opened; observations for the open-
ing of ilie text. The words farther weighed ; an entrance into the anstoer
to the argument from hence: the ivord hypothetical not absolute. Mr. G.'s
answer proposed and considered. Whether the teords are hypothetical.
The severals of the le::t considered ; the riyhteous 7nan spoken of, who.
Mr. G.'s proof of his interpretation of a righteous man considered. Dr.
Prideaux's sense of the righteous jjerson here intended, considered. Of
the commination in tlie ivoi'ds : shall die. The sense of the words : what
death intended. Close of the consideration of the text insisted on. Matt,
xviii. 32, 33. taken into a revieiv. Whether the love of God be mutable,
what the love of God is. \ Cor. ix. 27. Jn what sense it was possible
for Paul to become a reprobate. The proper sense of the place insisted
on, manifested. Of the meaiiiny of the word acoKipog. The scope (f the
place farther cleared. Hcb. vi. 4 — G. x. 26, 27. proposed to conside-
ration: whether the coords be conditional. 21ie yennine and true meaning
of the place opened, in six observations. 3Ir. G.'s exceptions to the expo-
sition of the words insisted on, removed. The persons intended not true
believers: this evinced on sundry considerations. The particidars of the
texts vindicated. Of the illuminations mentioned in the text. Of the ac-
knowledgment of the truth ascribed io the person mentioned. Of the sanc-
tifications mentioned in the texts. Of tasting the heavenly gift. To be
made partakers of the Holy Ghost, what. Of tasti7ig the yood icord <f
God, and power of the world to come. Of the progress made by man not
really reyenerate in the things of God. Tlie close of our consideratio7is
on these texts. Hcb. x. 38, 39. 3Ir. G.'s arguing from thence: con-
sidered and answered: of the right translation of the word: Beza vindi-
cated, as also our JEnglish translations. The words of the text, effectual
to prove the saints' perseverance. Of the parable if the stony ground ;
Matt. xiii. 20, 21. Mr. G.'s arguing from the place proposed and con-
sidered. The similitude in the parable farther considered. An argument
from the text, to prove the j)erso7is described not to be true believers, 2 Pet.
ii. 18 — 22. Mr. G.'s arguinysfrom this place considered, ^c.
Though I could willingly be spared the labour of all tliat
must ensue to the end of this treatise, yet it being made ne-
EXPLAINED AND COXFIRMED. 251
cessary by the endeavours of men not delighting in the
truth which hitherto we have asserted, for the opposition
thereof, and lying I hope under the power and efficacy of
that heavenly exhortation of * contending earnestly for the
faith once delivered to the saints,' I shall with all cheerful-
ness address myself thereunto ; yea, the service and homage
I owe to the truth itself, causing this engagement for its
rescue from imder the captivity wherein by the chains of
Mr. Goodwin's rhetoric it hath been sometimes detained,
being increased and doubled by the pressing and violent
wresting of sundry texts of Scripture to serve in the same
design of bondaging the truth with him, is a farther incitation
to add ray weak endeavours, to break open those doors and
bars which he hath shut and fastened upon them both, for
their joint deliverance.
In Mr. Goodwin's 12th chapter he takes into participa-
tion with him, as is pretended, eight places of Scripture, endea-
vouring by all means possible to compel them to speak com-
fortable words, for the relief of his fainting and dying cause.
Whether he hath prevailed with them to the least compli-
ance, or whether he will not be found to proclaim in their
name what they never once acknowledged unto him, will be
tried out in the process of our consideration of them.
In the first and second section he fronts the discourse
intended with an eloquent oration, partly concerning the
tendency of the doctrine of th'^ saints' perseverance, which
he girds himself now more closely to contend withal, partly
concerning himself, his own ability, industry, skill, diligence,
and observation of doctrines and persons, with his rules in
judging of the one and the other.
For the first, he informs us, that his judgment is, ' that
many who might have attained a crown of glory, by a pre-
sumptuous conceit of the impossibility of their miscarrying,
are now like to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire ; men
thereby gratifying the flesh, with wresting the Scripture to
the encouragement thereof.'
That the proud and presumptuous conceits of men are
like to have no other issue or effect than the betraying of
their souls to all manner of looseness and abomination, so
exposing them to the ' vengeance of eternal fire,' we are well
assured ; and therefore, ' knowing the terror of the Lord do
252 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
persuade men/ what we are able, to cast down all high thoughts
and imaginations concerning their own abilities to do good,
to believe, to obey the gospel, or to abide in the faith there-
of, and to roll themselves freely, fully, wholly, on the free
grace and faithfulness of God, in the covenant of mercy, ra-
tified in the blood of his Son, wherein they shall be assured
to find peace to their souls. On this foundation do we build
all our endeavours, for the exalting the sovereign, free, effec-
tual grace of God, in opposition to the proud and presump-
tuous conceits of men, concerning their own inbred, native
power in spiritual things ; an apprehension whereof we are
well assured, disposeth the heart into such a frame as God
abhors, and prepares the soul to a battle against him, in the
highest and most abominable rebellion imaginable. I no
ways doubt, that the ways and means whereby innumerable
poor creatures have been hardened to their eternal ruin, have
had all their springs and fountains lie in this one wretched
reserve, of a power in themselves to turn to God, and to
abide with him. That any one by mixing the promises of
God with faith, wherein the Lord hath graciously assured
him, that seeing he hath no strength in himself to continue
in his mercy, he will preserve and keep him in and through
the Son of his love, hath ever been, or ever can be turned
wholly aside to any way or path not acceptable to God, or
not ending in everlasting peace, will never be made good
whilst the gospel of Christ finds honour and credit amongst
any of the sons of men. There may be some indeed, who are
strangers to the covenant of promise, whatever they do pre-
tend, who may turn this grace of God in the gospel, as also
that of the satisfaction of Christ, redemption by his blood,
and justification by faith, the whole doctrine of the covenant
of grace in Christ, into lasciviousness ; but shall their unbe-
lief make the faith of God of none effect ? shall their wick-
edness and rebellion, prejudice the mercy, peace, and con-
solation of the saints ? Because the gospel is to them ' the
savour of death unto death,' may it not be the ' savour of life
unto life' unto them that do embrace it? Whatever then be
the disasters (of whicli themselves are the sole cause) of men
with their presumptuous conceits of the impossibility of mis-
carrying, seeing every presumptuous conceit of what kind
soever is a desperate miscarriage, their ruin and destruction
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 253
cannot in the least be ascribed to that doctrine which calls
for faith in the promises of God, a faith working by love, and
decrying all presumptuous conceits whatever. A doctrine
without which, and the necessary concomitant doctrines
thereof, the whole bottom of men's walking with God, and
of their obedience, is nothing but presumption and conceit,
whereby setting aside the cold fits they are sometimes cast
into, by the checks of their consciences, they spend their
days in the distemper of a fever of pride and folly.
In the ensuing discourse, Mr. Goodwin informs us of
these two things. First, What rule he proceeds by in judg-
ing of the truth of contrary opinions, when (as he phraseth
it) the tongue of the Scripture seems to be cloven about
them.
And secondly. Of his own advantages and abilities to
makearioht iudsfment accordino; to that rule. The rule he
attends unto upon the information he hath given us is, * the
consideration of which of the opinions that are at any time ri-
vals for his judgment and acceptation, tend most unto god-
liness ; the gospel being the truth which is according to god-
liness,' of his own advantao;es and abilities to make a riarht
judgment according to this rule, there are several heads and
springs ; as his * knowledge of the general 'course of the
Scripture, the experience of his own heart, his long observa-
tion of the spirits and ways of men, but chiefly that light of
reason and understanding which he hath.' And by this rule,
with these abilities proceeding in the examination of the
doctrine of the saints' perseverance, he condemns it and
casts it out as an abominable 'thing, preferring that concern-
ing their final defection far above it. Some considerations
I shall add to attend upon his rule and principles.
First, It is most certain, ' that the gospel is a doctrine ac-
cordingunto godliness,' whose immediate and direct tendency,
as in the whole frame and course of it, so in every particular
branch and stream is to promote that obedience to God in
Christ, which we call godliness. This is the will of God re-
vealed therein even our sanctification, and whatever doctrine
it be that is suited to turn men off from walking with God in
that way of holiness, it carries its brand in its face, whereby
every one that finds it, may know that it is of the unclean
spirit, the evil one. But yet that there may be fearful and
254 DOCTUIXE OF THE SAINTS PEllSEVEU A NCE
desperate deceits in the hearts of men judging of truths, pre-
tending their rise and original from the gospel, hy their suita-
bleness to the promotion of godliness and holiness, hath
been before in part declared, and the experience of all ages
doth sufficiently manifest. Among all those who profess
the name of Christ more or less in the world, though in
and under the most antichristian opposition to him, who is
there that doth not pretend that this tendency of opinions
unto godliness, or their disserviceableness thereunto, hath a
great influence into the guidance of their judgment in the re-
ceiving or rejecting of them. On the account of its destruc-
tiveness to godliness and obedience do the Socinians reject
the satisfaction and merit of Christ ; and on the account of
conducingness thereunto, do the Papists assert and build up
the doctrines of their own merits, penance, satisfaction and
the like. On that principle did they seem to be acted, who
pressed legal and judicial suppositions with a shew of wis-
dom or will worship, and humility and neglecting the body ;
Col. ii. 23. Neither did they fail of their plea concerning
promotion of godliness in the worship of God, who reviled,
rejected, and persecuted the ordinances of Christ in this ge-
neration, to set up their own abominations in the room. Yea,
it is generally the first word wherewith every aboip.ination
opens its mouth in the world, though the men of those abo-
minations do rather suppose this pretence of godliness to be
serviceable for the promotion of their opinions, than their
opinions any way really useful to the promotion of godliness.
Neither need we go far to inquire after the reasons of men's
raiscari'iages, pretending to judge of truth according to this
rule, seeing they lie at hand, and are exposed to the view of
all ; for besides that very many of the pretenders to this plea
may be justly suspected to be men of corrupt minds, dealing
falsely and treacherously with their own souls and the truth,
the pretence of furthering holiness being one of the cunning
sleights wherewith they lie in wait to deceive, which may
justly be suspected of them who, together with this plea,
and whilst they make it, are apparently themselves loose
and remote from the power of a gospel conversation, as the
case hath been with not a few of the most eminent assertors
of Arminianism, how few are there in the world, who have in-
deed a true notion and apprehension of the nature of holi-
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 255
ness in its whole compass and extent, as in the fountain,
causes, vise, and use, and end thereof. And if men know
not indeed what holiness is, how shall they judge what doc-
trine or opinion is conducing to the furtherance thereof, or
is obstructive to it? Give me a man who is persuaded that
he hath power in himself, being by the discovery of a rule
directed thereinto, to yield that obedience to God which he
doth require, who supposeth that threats of hell and de-
struction are the greatest, and most powerful and effectual
motive unto that obedience ; that the Spirit and grace of God
to work and create a new heart in him as a suitable principle
of all holy actings, are not purchased nor procured for him
by the blood of Christ; nor is there any holiness wrought in
him by the almighty efficacy of that Spirit and grace, he
having a sufficiency in himself for those things ; that there is
not a real physical concurrence of the grace of God for the
production of every good act whatever; and that he is jus-
tified upon the account of any act or part of his obedience,
or the whole; and I shall not be much moved or shaken with
the judgment of that man, concerning the serviceableness
and suitableness of any doctrine or doctrines to the further-
ance of godliness and holiness. There are also many dif-
ferent opinions about the nature of godliness, what it is,
and wherein it doth consist. I desire to be informed how a
man may be directed in his examination of those opinions,
supposing him in a strait and exigency of thoughts between
them, in considering which of them is best suited to the pro-
motion of godliness. I do not intend in the least to dero-
gate from the certain and undoubted truth of what was pre-
mised at the beginning of this discourse; viz. 'That every gos-
pel rule whatever is certainly conducing to the fartherance
of gospel obedience in them that receive it in the love and
power thereof ;' every error being in its utmost activity (es-
pecially in corrupting the principles of it) obstructive there-
unto ; much less do we in any measure decline the trial of
the doctrine which I assert, in opposition to the apostacy of
the saints, by this touchstone of its usefulness to holiness,
having formerly manifested its eminent activity and efficacy
in that service, and the utter averseness of its corrival to
lend any assistance thereunto. But yet I say, in an inquiry
after, and dijudication of truth, whatever I have been or
256 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS PERSEVERANCE
may be straitened between different persuasions, 1 have
and shall rather close, in the practice of holiness, in prayer,
faith, and waiting upon God; to search the Scripture, to at-
tend wholly to that rule, having plentiful promises for gui-
dance and direction, than to weigh in any rational conside-
ration of my own, what is conducing to holiness, what not ;
especially in many truths which have their usefulness in this
service, as is the case of most gospel ordinances and insti-
tutions of worship, not from the connexion of things, but the
mere will of the appointer. Of those doctrines, I confess,
which following on to know the Lord, we know from his
word to be from him, and in which doing the will of Christ
are revealed to us to be his will, a peculiar valuation is to be
set on the head of them which appear to be peculiarly and
eminently serviceable to the promotion and furthering our
obedience ; as also, that all opinions whatever, that are in
the least seducers from the power, truth, and spirituality of
obedience are not of God, and are eonomine to be rejected; yet,
having a more sure rule to attend unto, I dare not make my
appi'ehensions concerning the tendency of doctrines any rule,
if God hath not so spoken of them for the judging of their
truth or falsehood ; if my thoughts are not shut up and de-
termined by the power of the word.
The next proposal made by Mr. Goodwin, is of the ad-
vantages he hath to judge of truths, which he hath done unto
plenary satisfaction, according to the rule now considered.
The first thing he offereth to induce us to close with him in
his judgment of opinions is, ' the knowledge he hath of the
general course of the Scripture ;' what is intended by ' the ge-
neral course of the Scripture,' well I know not; and so am
notable to judge of Mr. Goodwin's knowledge thereof by
any thing exposed to public view. If by ' the general course
of the Scriptures,' the matter of them is intended, the im-
portance of the expression seems to be coincident with the
analogy or proportion of faith, a safe rule of prophecy ; but
whatever Mr. Goodwin's knowledge may be of this, I am
not perfectly satisfied that he hath kept close unto it in
many doctrines of his book entitled' Redemption Redeemed;'
and so the weight of his skill in judging of truths on this
foundation, will not balance what I have to lay against it, for
the inducement of other thoughts, than those of closing
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 257
v/ith him. The ' course of the Scripture,' cannot import t!)e
manner of the expressions therein used : in that there is so
great and so much variety therein, that it can scarce be cast
into one course and current : and if the general scope, aim,
and tendency of the Scripture may pass for the course of it,
there is not any one thing that hes so evident and clear
therein, as the decrying of all that ability and strength, and
power to do good in men, v^'hich Mr. Goodwin so much
pleads for, and asserts to be in tbeui ; with an exaltation of
that rich and free grace in the efficacy and the power of it,
which he so much opposeth.
The 'experimental knowledge he hath of his own heart,
the workings and reasonings thereof;' a thing common to him
with others, and what advantages he hath thereby I shall
not consider. Only this I shall dare to say, that I would
not for all the world, have no experience in my heart of the
truth of many things which Mr. Goodwin in this treatise op-
poseth ; or that my weak experience of the grace of God,
should not rise above that frame of heart and spirit, which
the teachings of it seem to discover. I doubt a person
under the covenant of works, heightened with convictions,
and a low or common work of the Spirit, induced thereby
to some regular walking before God, may reach the utmost
of what in this treatise is required to render a man a saint,
truly gracious, regenerate, and a believer. And in this also
1 doubt not, lies the deceit of what is thirdly insisted on,
viz. * His observation of the ways and spirits of men, their
firstinos and lastino-s in relifiion.' A sort of men there are
in the world, who escape the outward pollution of it, and are
clean in their own eyes, though they are never washed from
their iniquities, who having been under strong convictions
by the power of the law, and broken thereby from the course
of their sin, attending to the word of the gospel with a tem-
porary faith, do go forth unto a profession of religion, and
walking with God so far as to have all the lineaments of true
believers, as Mr. Goodwin somewhere speaks, drawn in their
faces, hearing the word gladly as did Herod, receiving it with
joy as did the stony ground, attending to it with delight, as
they did in Ezek. xxxiii. 31. Repenting of former sins, {'ts
Ahab and Judas, until they are reckoned among true be-
lievers, as was Judas and those John ii. 23. who yet were
VOL. VII. s
258 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
never united unto Jesus Christ, of whose ways and walking
Mr. Goodwin seems to have made observation, and found
many of them to end in visible apostacy. But that this ob-
servation of them, should cause him to judge them when
apostatized to have been true believers, or that he is thereby
advantaged to determine concerning the truth of several opi-
nions pretending to his acceptance, I cannot grant, nor doth
he go about to prove.
For what he mentions in the last place, of the ' light of
reason and understanding' which he hath, I do not only
grant him to have it in common, as he saith, with other men,
for the kind of it, but also as to the degrees of it to be much
advanced therein, above the generality of men ; yet I must
needs tell him in the close, that all these helps and advan-
tages, seeming to be drawn forth and advanced in opposition
to that one great assistance which we enjoy by promise
of Christ, of his Spirit leading us into all truth, and teach-
ing us from God by his own anointing, are to me hay and
stubble, yea, loss and dung, of no value nor esteem. Had we
not other ways and means, helps and advantages to come to
the knowledge of the truth, than these here unfolded and
spread by Mr. Goodwin, actum esset, we should never per-
ceive the things that are of God. The fox was acquainted
with many wiles and devices ; the cat knew loium magnum
wherein she found safety. Attendance to the word, according
to the direction of the usual known rules and helps agreed
on for the interpretation of it, with humble dependance on
God, waiting for the guidance of his Spirit according to the
promise of his dear Son; asking him of him continually that
he may dwell with us, anoint and lead us into all truth, with
an utter abrenunciation of all our skill, abilities, wisdom and
any resting on them, knowing that it is God alone that gives
us understanding, is the course that hitherto hath been used
in our inquiry after the mind of God in the doctrine under
consideration, and which the Lord assisting shall be heeded
and kept close unto, in that discussion of the texts of Scrip-
ture wrested by Mr. Goodwin, as by others before him, to
give countenance to his opposition to the truth hitherto
uttered, confirmed and vindicated from his contradictions
thereunto.
The place of Scripture first insisted on, and on the ac-
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 25^
count whereof he triumphs with the greatest confidence of
success, is that of Ezek. xviii. 24, 25. Unto which words
he subjoins a triumphant exulting exclamation.
'Whatmore,' saith he, 'can the understanding, judgment,
soul, and conscience of a man, reasonably desire for the es-
tablishment in any truth whatsoever, than is delivered by God
himself in this passage, to evince tlie possibility of a righte-
ous man's declining from his righteousness, and that unto
death.'
The counsel given of old to the king, may not b« unsea-
sonable to Mr. Goodwin in that dominion which he exer-
ciseth in his own thoughts in this work of his, 'let not hira
that putteth on his armour boast like him that putteth it
off.' You have but newly entered the lists ^ and that with
all pressed soldiers, unwilling so much as once to appear in
that service they are forced to. If you will but suspend
your triumph, until we have made a little trial of your forces,
and your skill in managing of them to the battle, perhaps
you may be a little taken off from this confidence of success,
notwithstanding the facing of this Scripture upon the truth,
being cut off and taken away from that coherence and con-
nexion, and station wherein it is placed of God (which is not
at the least inquired into), it will be found in that issue to
bear it no ill will at all. As will also be manifested by the
light of the ensuing consideration.
1. The matter under inquiry, and into a disquisition of
whose state we have hitherto been engaged, is the condition
of the saints of God ; and his dealing with them, in and
under the covenant of grace in general. For our guidance
and direction herein, a text of Scripture evincing the righte-
ousness of God's dealings with a number of persons in a
peculiar case, which was under debate, is produced, and by
the tenor of this, and according to the tenor of the rea-
sonings therein, must all the promises of God, in the cove-
nant of grace, made and ratified by the blood of Christ, be
regulated and interpreted. We have been told by as learned
a man as Mr. Goodwin, that promises made to the people of
the Jews peculiarly, and suited to the peculiar state and
condition wherein they were, do not concern the people of
God in general. And why may not the same be the condi-
"' s 2
260 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIN'TS' PERSEVERANCE
tion of threatenings given out upon a parallel account ; ' Com-
pedes quas fecit ipse ut ferat sequum est.'
2. That it is the determination and stating of a particular
controversy, between God and the people of the Jews, suited
to a peculiar dispensation of his providence towards them
which is here proposed, is evident from the occasion of the
words laid down, ver. 2, 3. 'What mean ye &.c. that use this
proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, the fathers
have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on
edge ? As I live saith the Lord,' &,c. It is the use of a pro-
verb concerning the land of Israel, that God is descrying
and disprovine: the truth of the proverb itself under consi-
deration, and that this should be the standard and rule of
God's proceeding with his people, in the covenant of mercy,
no man that seems to have either understanding, judgment
or conscience can reasonably imagine.
3. That it is not the nature and tenor of the covenant
of grace, and God's dealing with his chosen secret ones, his
saints, true believers, as to their eternal condition, which in
these words is intended, but the manifestation of the righte-
ousness of God in dealing with that people of the Jews, in
a peculiar dispensation of his providence, towards the body
of that people, and the nation in general, appears farther
from the occasion of the words, and the provocation given
the Lord to make use of these expressions unto them. The
proverb that God cuts out of their lips and mouths, by the
sword of his righteousness in these words, was concerning
the land of Israel : used perhaps mostly by them in capti-
vity : but it was concerning the land of Israel, not concerning
the eternal state and condition of the saints of God, but con-
cerning the land of Israel, ver. 2. God had of old given
that land to that people by promise, and continued them in
it for many generations ; until at length for their wickedness,
idolatry, abomination, and obstinacy in their evil ways, he
caused them to be carried captive unto Babylon. In that
captivity the Lord revenged upon them not only the sins of
the present generation, but as he told them, also those of
their forefathers; especially the abomination, cruelty, idola-
try exercised in the days of Manasseh, taking this season
for his work of vengeance in the generations following, who
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 261
also SO far walked in the steps of their forefathers, as to jus-
tify all God's proceedings against them. Being wasted and
removed from their own land by the righteous judgment of
God, they considered the land of Israel that was promised
to them (though upon their good behaviour therein), and
how instead of a plentiful enjoyment of all things in peace
and quietness therein, there were now a small remnant in
captivity, the rest, the far greatest part, being destroyed by
the sword and famine in that land. In this state and condi-
tion, being as all other of their frame and principle, prone
to justify themselves, they had hatched a proverb among
themselves concerning the land of Israel promised to them,
exceedingly opprobrious and reproachful to the justice of
God, in his dealings with them. The sum of the intendment
of this saying that was grown rife amongst them, was, that
for the sin of their forefathers, many, yea the greatest part
of them were slain in the land of Israel, and the rest carried
from it into bondage and captivity. To vindicate the righte-
ousness and equity of his ways, the impartiality of his judg-
ments, the Lord recounts to them by his prophet many of
their sins, whereof themselves with their fathers were guilty,
in the land of their nativity, and for which he had brought
all that calamity and desolation upon them, whereof they did
complain; affirming under many supposals of rising and
falling, that principle of rising and falling, that principle he
laid down in the entrance of his dealings with them, that
every one of them sutfered for his own iniquity, whatever
they suffered, whether death or other banishment, and not
for the sins of their forefathers 5 whatever influence they
might have upon the procuring of the general vengeance,
that overtook the whole nation in the midst of their iniquity.
This being the aim, scope, and tendency of the place, the
import of the words and tenor of God's intendment in them,
I cannot but wonder how any man of understanding and
conscience can once imagine that God hath given any tes-
timony to the possibility of falling out of covenant with him,
of those whom he hath taken nigh to himself through the
blood of his Son, in the everlasting bond thereof. As though
it were any thing of his dealing with the saints, in reference
to their spiritual and eternal condition, that the Lord here
reveals his will about ; being only the tenor of his dealings
262 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
with the house of Israel in reference to the land of Ca-
naan.
4. This is farther manifest in that principle and rule of
God's proceedings in the matter laid down, ver. 4. which is
not only a line from, but also directly opposite unto, that
which is the principle in the covenant of grace. 'The soul
that sinneth he shall die.' That soul and person and not
another, when in that covenant of grace, he ' sets forth his
Son to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, giving
him up to death for all, causing the just to die for the un-
just,' the soul that never sinned for the souls that had sinned,
that they might go free. And I would fain know on what
solid grounds an answer may be given to the Socinians
triumphing in the4th verse, against the satisfaction of Christ,
no less than Mr. Goodwin, in the 24, 25. against the perse-
verance of the saints, if you do not manifest the whole ten-
dency of this place to be acommodated to God's providen-
tial dispensation of temporal judgments and mercies in re-
spect of that people, and the covenant whereby they held
the land of Canaan ; and not at all to respect the general
dispensation of his righteousness and grace in the blood of
Christ. So that,
5. The whole purport and intendment of the Scripture
under consideration is only to manifest the tenor of God's
righteous proceeding with the people of Israel, in respect of
his dispensation towards them in reference to the land of
Canaan; convincing them of their own abominations, con-
futing the profane proverb invented and reared up in the
reproach of his righteousness, beating them from the vain
pretence of being punished for their fathers sins, and the
conceit of their own righteousness, which that people was
perpetually puffed up withal ; he lets them know that his
dealing with them, and his ways towards them, were equal
and righteous, in that there was none of them but was pu-
nished for his own sin ; and though some of them might
have made some profession and done some good, yet upon
the whole matter first or last, they had all declined, and
therefore ought to own the punishment of their sins ; God
dealing severely, and unto death and destruction, with none
but those who either wholly or upon the sum of the matter,
turned away from his judgments and statutes. So that.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 263
6. This being the tenor and importance of the words in-
sisted on, this their tendency, aim, and accommodation to
the objection levied against the righteousness of God in
dealing with that people, this their rise and end, their spring
and fall, it is evident beyond all contradiction from any
thing but prejudice itself, that all the inquiries and dis-
putes about them, as whether the declaration of the mind
of God in them be hypothetical or absolute ; what is meant
by the righteous person, what by his turning away, and what
by the death threatened (all which expressions of the text
are in themselves ambio;uous, and must be limited from the
circumstances of place), are altogether useless and needless,
the words utterly refusing any accommodation to the busi-
ness of our present debate. So that,
7, This dependance of the words, scope of the context,
design of the place, and intendment of God in it, the accom-
modation of the whole discourse to the removal of the ob-
jection, and disproving of the proverbial self justification of
a sinful people, the only directories in the investigation of
the true, proper, native, genuine sense and meaning of them,
eyed, weighed, nor considered by Mr. Goodwin, who knew
how much it was to his advantage to rend away these two
verses from the body of the prophet's discourse, I might
well supersede any farther proceedings in the examination
of what he has prepared for a reply to the answers com-
monly given to the argument taken from this place ; yet that
all security imaginable may be given to the reader, of the
inofFensiveness of this place as to the truth we maintain, I
shall briefly manifest that Mr. Goodwin hath not indeed ef-
fectually taken up and off, any one answer, or any one par-
cel of any such, that hath usually been given by our divines
unto the objection ao;ainstthe doctrine of perseverance hence
levied.
That which naturally first offers itself, to our considera-
tion is, the form and tenor of the expression here used ;
which is not of an absolute nature, but hypothetical. The
import of the words is, ' If a righteous man turn from his
righteousness and continue therein he shall die.' True, say
they who make use of this consideration, God here pro-
poses the desert of sin, and the connexion that is by his ap-
pointment, between apostacy and the punishment thereunto
264 DOCTRINE OF THE SAlXTs' PERSEVERANCE
allotted ; but this not at all infers that any one who is truly
righteous, shall or may everlastingly so apostatize. Such
comminations as these God maketh use of to caution be-
lievers of the evil of apostacy, and thereby to preserve them
from it, as their tendency to that end, by the appointment
of God, and their efficacy thereunto, hath been declared.
So that to say, because God says, ' If a righteous man turn
from his righteousness he shall die ;' the whole emphasis
lying in the connexion, that is between such turning away,
and dying, to conclude (considering what is the proper use
and intendment of snch threatenings) that a man truly righ-
teous may so fall away, is to build up that which the text
contributes not any thing to in the least. '
Against this plea Mr. Goodwin riseth up with much
contempt and indignation; chap. 12. sect. 9. in these
words :
' But this sanctuary hath also been profaned by some of
the chief guardians themselves of that cause, for the pro-
tection and safety whereof it was built. There needs no
more be done (though much more might be done, yea and
hath been done by others) than that learned doctor (so lately
named), hath done himself for the demolishing of it. Having
propounded the argument from the place in Ezekiel accord-
ing to the import of the interpretation asserted by us y Some
saith he, answer that a condition proves nothing in being;
vwhich how true soever it may be in respect of such hypo-
theticals, which are made use of only for the amplification
of matters, and serve for the aggravating either of the diffi-
culty or indignity of a thing; (as if I should climb up into
heaven thou art there, Psal. cxxxix. it >vere ridiculous to
infer, therefore a man may climb up into heaven ;) yet such
conditional sayings, upon which admonitions, promises, or
threatenings arebuilt, do at least suppose something in pos-
sibility, however by virtue of their tenor and form, they
suppose nothing in being. For no man seriously intending
to encourage a student in his way would speak thus to him;
If thou wilt get all the books in the University Library by
heart, thou shalt be doctor this commencement. Beside in
the case in hand, he that had a mind to deride the prophet,
might readily come upon him thus: but a righteous man ac-
cording to the judgment of those that are orthodox, cannot
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 265
turn away from his righteousness ; therefore your threaten-
ing is in vain. Thus we see to how little purpose it is to
seek for starting holes in such logic quirks as these. Thus
far the great assertor of the Synod of Dort, and the cause
which they maintained to shew the vanity of such a sense
or construction, put upon the words now in debate, which
shall render them merely conditional, and will not allow
them to import so inuch as a possibility of any thing con-
tained or expressed in them.'
Ans. 1. Doctor Prideaux's choosing not to lay the weight
of this answer, to the argument of the Arminians from this
place, on the hypothetical manner of the expression used
therein, is called a 'defiling the sanctuary by the guardians
of the cause whose protection it undertakes. Crimina rasis,
librat in antithesis ; doctas posuisse figuras laudatur?' What
are my thoughts of it, I need not express, being unconcerned
in the business, as knowing it not at all needful to be insist-
ed on, for the purpose for which it is produced, the text look-
ing not at all towards the doctrines under consideration ; yet
I must needs say, I am not satisfied with the doctor's attempt
for the removal of it, nor with what is farther added by the
remonstrants, in the place which we are sent unto by Mr.
Goodwin's marginal directions, though it should be granted,
that such conditional expressions do suppose, or may (for
that they always do is' not affirmed, and in some cases it is
evident they do not) that there is something in posse, as the
doctor speaks, whereunto they do relate, yet they do not in-
fer, that the possibility may by no means be hindered from
ever being reduced into act. We grant a possibility of de-
sertion in believers, in respect of their own principles of
operation, which is ground sufficient for to give occasion to
such hypothetical expressions, as contain comminations
and threatenings in them, but yet notwithstanding that pos-
sibility on that account supposed, yet the bringing forth of
that possibility into an actual accomplishment, may not be
effectually prevented by the Spirit and grace of God, the
doctor says nothing. This 1 say is ground sufficient for
such hypothetical comminations, that in respect of them to
whom they are made, it is possible to incur the thing threat-
ened, by the means therein mentioned, which yet upon other
accounts is not possible. That God who says, if the * righ-
266 doctuixp: of the saints' peuseveuance
teous man turn from his rigliteousness, he shall die,' and says
so on purpose to preserve righteous men from so doing,
knowing full well, that the thing in respect of themselves,
of whom and to whom he speaks, is sufficiently possible to
give a clear foundation to that expression. So that if Mr.
Goodwin hath not something of his own to add, he will find
little relief from the conceptions of that learned doctor :
wherein yet, I should not have translated some phrases and
expressions, as Mr. G. hatli made bold to do.
He adds therefore, p. 276. 'To say that God putteth a case
in such solemnity and emphaticalness of words and phrase,
as are remarkable all along in the carriage of the place in
hand, of which there is no possibility that it should ever
happen, or be exemplified in reality of event ; and this in
vindication of himself, and the equity of his dealings and
proceedings with men, is to bring a scandal and reproach of
weakness upon that infinite wisdom of his, which magnifies
itself in all his works, which also is so much the more un-
worthy and unpardonable, when there is a sense commodious
every way worthy, as well the infinite wisdom as the good-
ness of God, pertinent and proper to the occasion he hath
in hand, which offers itself plainly and clearly,' So far he.
And this is all it seems which Mr. Goodwin hath to add :
and indeed this all is nothing at all, but only the repetition
of what was urged before from the doctor, in more swelling
and less significant terms. What possibility there is in the
thing, hath been before manifested; that this possibility
should necessarily be exemplified in reality of event to give
significancy to this expression, I suppose is not Mr. Good-
win's own intendment ; true believers according to the doc-
trine he asserts (as he pretends) are only in such a remote
possibility of apostacy, as that it can scarce be called dan-
ger. Now doubtless it is possible that such a remote pos-
sibility may never be reduced into act. But now if Mr.
Goodwin will not be contented with such a possibility, as
may, but also will have that must be exemplified in reality
of event, he is advanced from a possibility in all, to a ne-
cessity in some to apostatize.
2. Had Mr. G. a little more attended to what here drops
from him, viz. 'that the words are used for the vindication of
the justice of the proceedings of God,' namely, in the parti-
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 267
cular case formerly opened and cleared, perhaps he would
himself have judged the edge of this weapon to be so far
blunted as to render it wholly useless to him, in the com-
bat wherein he is engaged ; I hope at least that by the light
of this spark, he may apprehend the emphaticalness of all
the expressions used in this place to be pointed towards the
particular case under consideration, and not in the least to
be expressive of the possibility he contends for; God knows
what beseems his own infinite wisdom, and hath given us
rules to judge thereof, as far as we are called thereto in his
word ; and from thence, whether Mr. Goodwin will pardon
us or no in our so doing, we doubt not to evince, that it
exceedingly becomes the infinite wise God, emphatically to
express that connexion, that is between one thing and an-
other (sin and punishment, believing and salvation) by his
appointment, though some never believe unto salvation, nor
some sin, to the actual inflicting of punishment on them;
and as for Mr. Goodwin's commodious sense of this place,
we see not any advantage in it, for any but those who are
engaged into an opposition to the covenant of the grace of
God, and his faithfulness therein : so that once more upon
the whole matter, this text is discharged from farther at-
tendance in the trial of the truth in hand.
The severals of the text come nextly under consideration,
and amongst them ; First, The subject spoken of (that we
may take the words in some order, Mr. G. having roved up
and down, backwards and forwards, from one end of the
text to the other, without any at all) and this is, a 'righteous
man,' that is such a one as is described, ver. 5 — 9. but if a
man &c. that is, such a one that walks up to the judgments
and statutes and ordinances of God, so far as they were of
him required in the covenant of the land of Canaan, and ac-
cording to the tenor of it, whereby they held their posses-
sion therein, whereby heavenly things were also shadowed
out : that this is the person intended, this his righteousness,
and that the matter upon which he is here tried, is clear in
the contexts beyond all possible contradiction. So that
all farther inquiries into what righteousness is intended, is
altogether needless ; what with any colour of probability
can be pretended from hence, as to the matter in hand, arises
from the analogy of God's dealings with men in the tenor of
268 DOCTllINE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVERANCE
the covenant of grace, and the covenant of the land of Israel,
which yet are eminently distinguished in the very founda-
tion of them : the one being built upon this bottom, * the
soul that sinneth it shall die ;' the other upon a dispensation
of another import, as has been declared : we do then plainly
supererogate as to the cause in hand, by the confutation of
the answers, which Mr. Good win farther attempts to remove,
and his endeavour therein, which yet shall not be declined.
Sect. 8. One opposition by some insisted on, of this
term a righteous man, is thus proposed by Mr. Goodwin :
'notwithstanding some formerly (it seems) in favour of the
doctrine, attempted an escape from that sword of Ezekiel
lately drawn against it, by pretending that by the righteous
man mentioned in the passages in hand, is not meant a per-
son truly and really righteous, but a kind of formal hypo-
crite, or outside professor of righteousness.'
Those who insist on this interpretation of the place, tell
you that in the commands of God, there is the mere end of
them considerable, and the manner of their performance,
which is as the life and form of the obedience of them which
is acceptable to God. Farther, that many persons wrought
upon by the power of conviction from the law of God, and
enabled in some measure with common gifts and graces, do
go forth in such a way to the performance of the command
of God, as to the substance and matter of them (wherein
also they are not hypocritical in the strict sense of tlie word,
but sincere), and so are called and counted righteous, com-
paratively so, in respect of those who live in open rebellion
against the Lord and his ways : and such as these they say,
as they are oftentimes useful in their generations, and bring
glory to God by their profession, so (especially under the old
legal dispensation of the covenant) they were rewarded in
a plentiful manner of God in this life, in the enjoyment of the
abundance of all things in peace and quietness. Of this
sort of men, that is men upright and righteous in their deal-
ings with men, and in the world, conscientious in their trust,
yielding professed subjection to the judgments and institu-
tions of God, performing outwardly all known duties of re-
ligious men, they say, that after they have made a profes-
sion of some good continuance, having never attained union
with God in Christ, nor being built on the rock, many do
EXPLAINED AND COM IRMED. 269
fell into all manner of spiritual and sensual abominations,
exposing themselves to all the judgments and vengeance of
God in this life, which also under the Old Testament gene-
rally overtook them, God being (as here he pleads) righteous
therein : in this description of the righteous person here in-
tended, there is no occasion in the least administered to Mr.
Goodwin to relieve himself against it, by that which in the
close of this section he borrows from Dr. Prideaux, viz. 'That
if the righteous man, should turn himself away from his
counterfeit and hypocritical righteousness, he should rather
live than die :' for they say not that this righteousness is
hypocritical or counterfeit, but true and sincere in its kind ;
only the person himself is supposed not to be partaker of
the righteousness of God in Christ, and a principle of life
from him, which should alter his obedience, render it spi-
ritual and acceptable to God in the Son of his love.
What more says Mr. Goodwin unto this exposition of
the words ? With many scornful expressions cast both upon
it (as by himself stated and laid down) and the synod of
Dort, he tells you it was rejected by the synod. That
some in the synod looking on it perhaps under such sense
and apprehension as Mr. G. proposeth it in, did not see
cause to close with it, may be true. Yet that it was re-
jected by the synod, Mr. Goodwin can by no means prove,
whatever he is pleased to say and to insult thereon, upon
the judgments of very learned men, whom he hath no rea-
son upon any account in the world to despise. The labours
of very many of them praising them in the gates of Sion,
exceedingly above the cry and clamour of all reproaches
whatever mustered to their dishonour. But to let pass
those poor contemptible wretches, let us see how this mas-
ter in our Israel, in his indignation deals with this silly
shift, whereby poor men strive to avoid his fury. Says he
then,
* And indeed the whole series and carriage of the context,
from ver. 20. to the end of the chapter, demonstratively
evinceth, that by the righteous man all along, is meant such
a man as was or is truly righteous ; and who, had he perse-
vered in that way of righteousness, wherein he sometimes
walked, should have worn the crown of righteousness, and
received the reward of a righteous man. As by the wicked
270 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PEllSF. VEKAXCE
man all along opposed to him, is meant not a person seem-
ingly wicked, but truly and really so (as is acknowledged on
all hands), so that the antithesis or opposition between the
righteous and the wicked, running so visibly quite through
the body of the discourse, must needs be dissolved, if by the
righteous man should be meant, a person seemingly righte-
ous only; he that is righteous in this sense being truly and
really wicked,'
^iis. The main series and context of the chapter, with-
out the least endeavour to give any light or illustration
thereunto, by the scope, occasion, or dependance of the
parts of it one upon another, does more than once stand
Mr. Goodwin in stead, when nothing else presents itself to
his relief. It is true the whole context of the chapter,
grants the persons spoken of to be righteous in the per-
formance of the duties mentioned in the chapter, in opposi-
tion to the wicked man and his intentions and ways described
therein, in proportion to the dispensation of the covenant,
whose rule and principle is placed in the head of ver. 20.
which Mr. Goodwin directs us unto; viz. 'the soul thatsin-
neth it shall die ;' and as there is nothing in all this contrary
to any thing in this exposition by Mr. Goodwin opposed,
so there is not any thing more proved, nor once attempted
to be here by Mr. Goodwin himself, than what is confessed
therein.
It is acknowledged that the person spoken of is truly
and really righteous, with that kind of righteousness which
is intended, and wherein if he continued he was to receive
the reward of righteousness then under consideration ; and
yet, though such a one might be truly and really united unto
Christ, yet there is nothing in the text nor context, enforc-
ing that such a one and none else is intended here; and
more in this case Mr. Goodwin hath not to add ; nor doth
he threaten us with any more than he hath delivered, as he
did upon tlie consideration of the tenor of the words, and
our inquiry whether they are of an hypothetical or absolute
nature and importance.
It is true he adds, that ' Calvin in his exposition on the
place, notwithstanding his wariness to manage it so, as that
the doctrine of perseverance whicli he maintained, might
suffer no damacre (which perhaps Mr. G. was not so wary in
EXPLAINED AXD COXFIRMED. 271
expressing, contending so much as he does, to manifest,
that he had thoughts lying another way), and therefore, as-
serting the person here spoken of, to be a person seemingly
righteous only, yet lets fall such things as declared nothing
to be wanting in this righteous person but perseverance.'
But that Calvin grants in any expression of his, this person
or him concerned herein, to be in such an estate as to want
nothing but perseverance, to render them everlastingly
blessed, is notoriously false ; neither does any thing in the
expressions cited by Mr. Goodwin come from the body of
his discourse, in the least look that way, as might easily
be manifested, did I judge it meet in a contest of this na-
ture, to trade in the authorities of men; so that I cannot but
wonder with what confidence he is pleased to impose such
a sense upon his words ; all this while then, notwithstand-
ing any thing our author hath to say to the contrary, the
righteous person here intended may be only such a one as
was described in the entrance of this consideration of his;
and_:that it is not requisite from the text or context that he
should^be any other, is more evident than that it is to be
contended against.
Sect. 7. He deals with another exposition of the words,
which hath no small countenance given unto it from the
Scriptures, which for to prevail himself upon an expression
or two, by the by, he sets down in the words of Dr. Pri-
deaux, Lect. 6. and they are these. ' There is,' saith he, ' a
double righteousness, one inherent, or of works, by which
we are sanctified ; another, imputed, or of faith, whereby
we are justified ; a righteous man may turn aside from his
own righteousness ; viz. from his holiness, and fall into very
heinous sins ; but it doth not follow from hence, that there-
fore he hath wholly shaken off from him (or out of him),
the righteousness of Christ.' To this he adorns a threefold
reply :
1. 'The doctor here presents us with a piece of new
divinity, in making sanctification and justification, no more
intimate friends, than that one can live without the compa-
ny and presence of the other. Doubtless if a man's justi-
fication may stay behind when his holiness is departed, that
assertion of the apostle will hardly stand ; without holiness
no man shall see the Lord ; Heb. xii. 14. And if they that
272 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PEUSEVEKAN'CE
are Christ's (i. e. who believe in Christ, and thereby are jus-
tified), have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts,
(another assertion of the same apostle), how their relation
unto Christ should stand, and yet their holiness sink and
fall, I understand not. But I leave his friends to be his
enemies in this.'
Ans. How little advantage Mr, Goodwin hath obtained
by attempting a diversion from the consideration of the
matter insisted on (which is all he doth in this paragraph)
will quickly appear. From the righteousness of sanctifica-
tion there is, or may be supposed, a twofold fall. First, from
the exercises of it, in all or any of the fruits thereof, accord-
ing to the will of God. Secondly, From the habit and prin-
ciple of it, in respect of its root and groundwork in the soul ;
it is the former that the doctor asserts. A man, saith he, may
fall away from the zealous practice of the duties of holiness,
and with, or under violence of temptation (as to fruit-bearing)
decay in close walking, until the whole seem really to die,
so as through the righteous judgment of God, to be exposed
to calamities, corrections, and punishments in this life, yea,
the o-reat death itself, as it fell out in the case of Josiah,
who fell by the sword in undertaking against the mind and
will of God : but now for the work and principles of holi-
ness, none who have once received it, can ever cast it up,
and become wholly without; and between this and the
righteousness of justification, there is that strict connexion,
that the one cannot, doth nut consist without the other. If
now Mr. Goodwin understands not, how a justified, sancti-
fied person, may decline from the ways and pretences of
holiness for a season, so as to provoke the Lord to deal
sharply, yea, and sometimes terribly with him, take ven-
oeance of his invention, and yet that person not lose his
relation to Christ, nor his interest in the love and favour of
God, I shall not presume to instruct him in the knowledge
thereof. But refer him to them who are better able so to do,
wherein upon the account of his aptness to hear as well as
teach, I presume their undertakings will not be difficult.
He adds,
2. * He seems by his word, peiiitus, wholly, throughly, or
altogether, to be singular also in another strain of divinity,
and to teach 7nagis and minus in justification. For in saying
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 273
that from a man's apostatizing from his own righteousness,
it doth not follow that therefore he hath wholly or altogether
shaken off the imputed righteousness of Christ ; doth he not
imply, that a man may shake off some part of the righteous-
ness of Christ from him, and yet keep another part of it
upon him ? Or else that by sinning, he may come to wear
the entire garment or clothing of it so loosely, that it will
be ready to drop or fall off from him every hour? And con-
sequently that the righteousness of Christ sits faster and
closer upon some than upon others ; yea, upon the same
person at one time than another.'
Ans. That this is a second attempt, for to lead the reader
off from the consideration of the business in hand, and to
prepare him by a diversion, to an acceptation of what he
afterward tenders in way of reply, that he may not perceive
how insufficient it is for the purpose, by an immediate com-
paring of it with the answer itself, is evident. Truly, when
in my younger days, I was wont to hear that doctor in his
lectures and other exercises, I did not think then I should
have afterward found him called in question for want of skill
to express himself and the sense of his mind in Latin, he
having a readiness and dexterity in that language equal to
any that ever I knew ; neither yet am I convinced that his
word penitus, upon which Mr. Goodwin criticiseth (being
commonly, as might be by innumerable instances be made
good, used to increase and make emphatical the import of
the word wherewith it is associated) will evince any such
meaning in his expression, as is there intended by Mr.
Goodwin. Justification is, and it was so taught by the doc-
tor, to be (Lect. de Just.) in respect of all persons that are
partakers of it equal ; and equal to every person so par-
taking of it, at all times ; though in regard of sense and per-
ception, and the peace and comfort, wherewith (when per-
ceived, and felt) it is attended, it is no less subject to in-
creases and wanings than sanctification itself. So that this
also might be intended by the doctor without the least
strain of new divinity, that justified and sanctified persons,
though they might so decline from the course of close walk-
ing with God, as for a season to be like a tree in winter,
whose substance is in his roots, his leaves and fruit fallino-
off, ceasing to bring forth the fruits of holiness in such de-
VOL. VII. T
274 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
grees as formerly, and so lose their sense of acceptation
with God through Christ, and the peace, with consolation
and joy wherewith it is attended, yet they could not, nor
should not, wholly be cast out of the favour of God ; the
nature and essence of their justification being abiding. And
what singular strain of divinity there is in the tendency of
such a discourse I know not. Besides, that teaching of
magis and minus in justification should be any singular thing
in Mr. Goodwin, I do not well understand ; for if the matter
of our righteousness, or that upon the imputation whereof
unto us, we are justified, may have its degrees, and receive
magis and minus, as certainly our faith may and doth ; why
our justification may not do so too, I see no reason. But
he comes at length to the matter, and addeth,
3, 'Lastly, Were it granted unto the doctor, that from a
man's turning aside from his own holiness, it doth not fol-
low that therefore he hath wholly divested himself of the
righteousness of Christ imputed ; yet from God's determina-
tion, or pronouncing a man to be in an estate of condemna-
tion, and of death, it follows roundly, that therefore he is di-
vested of the righteousness of Christ imputed (if ever he
were invested with it before), because no man with that
righteousness upon him, can be in such an estate. Now we
have upon several grounds proved, that the righteous man
under that apostacy wherein Ezekiel describes and presents
him, is pronounced by God, a child, not of a temporal, but
eternal death and condemnation ; this, indeed, the doctor
denies, but gives no reason of his denial, for which I blame
him not. Only I must crave leave to say, that the chair
weigheth not so much as one good argument with me ;
much less, as many. So that all this while, he that spake,
and still speaks unto the world by Ezekiel, is no friend to
that doctrine which denieth a possibility of a righteous
man's declining even unto death.'
Ans. If this be all that Mr. Goodwin hath to say for the
removal of this answer, that cuts the throat of his argument
if it be not removed, he hath little reason for the confidence
wherewith he closeth it, concerning God's speaking in this
place of Ezekiel, against that doctrine which in innumera-
,ble places of his word he hath taught us, as a doctrine en-
wrapping no small portion of that grace, which in a covenant
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 275
of mercy he dispenseth to his chosen, redeemed, justified,
sanctified ones : neither is here any need to add the weight
of the chair (wherein yet that person spoke of behaved him-
self worthily in his generation, and was in his exercises
herein, by no means by Mr. Goodwin to be despised) be laid
upon the reasonings of the doctor in this case, they proving
singly of themselves too heavy for Mr. Goodwin to bear.
In brief, that the substance of the reply in hand is merely a
begging of the thing in question, airy one that hath but half
an eye in the business of this nature, may easily discern ;
that it is supposed that a man truly righteous and justified
in the blood of Christ, may so fall away as to be pronounced
of God to be in a state of damnation, and so fallen really
from his former condition, (Rom. viii. 1.) is the thing that
Mr. Goodwin hath to prove. Now, saith he, this must needs
be so, because God here upon such a supposal, pronounceth
such a man to be in the estate of condemnation; what this is
with other men, I know not; but to me, it is no proof at all;
nor should I believe that to be the sense of the place, though
in variety of expressions he should significantly affirm it a
thousand times. The I'eader also is misinformed, that the
doctor attempts not any proof, that by death, eternal death
is not in this place intended ; he that shall consult the place
will find himself abused ; but we must speak more of this
anon.
And this is all our author oflfers as to the persons spoken
of in the place of Scripture under consideration ; wherein,
though he hath taken some pains to little or no purpose, to
take off" the exposition of the words, and the description of
the person given by others, yet he hath not attempted to
give so much as one argument to confirm the sense he would
impose on us concerning the condition of the person
spoken of; and I must crave leave to say, that naked as-
sertions, be they never so many, in the chair or out, weigh
not so much with me, as one good argument, much less as
many.
There is nothing remains to consideration, but only the
comminatory part of the words, or the expression of the pu-
nishment allotted of God, to such as walk in the ways of
apostacy here expressed, 'in his tresspass that he hath tres-
passed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he
T 2
276 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVEUANCE
die ;' that is, be shall be dealt withal, as many of their na-
tion were in the land of Israel; my judgments shall over-
take him ; it shall not advantage him, that either he had
godly parents that have walked with me, or that he himself
had so behaved himself in a way of righteousness, as before
described, if he turn to the profaneness and abominations
which are laid down as the ways of wicked men, or into
any paths like them, he shall even die, or be punished for
his sins, accordino; to the tenor of the truth laid down in
the entrance of the chapter, and repeated again ver. 20.
* the soul that sinneth it shall die.' But now whereas it
might be replied, that such a one, notwithstanding his de-
generacy, might yet perhaps recover himself to his former
way of walking, obedience, and righteousness in conversa-
tion; and is there then no hope, nor help for him, but hav-
ing once so apostatized, he must suffer for it? To prevent
any such misprision of the mind of God, there is added the
terms of his duration in that state of apostacy, that is even
unto death ; if he committeth iniquity, and dieth in it, that
is, repents not of it, before his death, the judgments of God
shall find him out, as was before expressed. If by his re-
pentance, he prevent not his calamities, he shall end his sin-
ning in destruction ; in which expressions of the person's
continuance in his apostatized condition, and of the judg-
ments of God falling on him on that account, there is not
the least appearance of any tautology or incongruity in the
sense ; the same word is used to express diverse concern-
ments of it, which is no tautology ; though the same word
be used, yet the same thing is not intended ; tautology re-
flects on things, not words; otherwise there must be a tau-
tology wherever there is an avravaKXamg, as John i. 4. 'to
commit iniquity, and to die therein,' is no more but to con-
tinue in his iniquity impenitently until death; now to say
that a man was put to death for his fault, because he com-
mitted it, and continued impenitent in it, even unto the
death which he was adjudged to, and which was inflicted on
him for his fault, is an incoherent expression, it seems will
puzzle as great a master of language as Mr. G. to make
good.
Mr. G. endeavours to make the punishment threatened
in the words *he shall die for his iniquity,' precisely and
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 277
exclusively to signify eternal death (which the former inter-
pretation doth not exclude), which he is no way able to
make good. What he offers sect. 3. concerning the incon-
gruity of the sense, and tautology of the expression of it,
be not so understood, hath been already removed ; the com-
parison ensuing instituted between these words, and those
of 1 Cor. ix. 10. should have been enforced with some con-
sideration of the coincidence of the scope of either place,
with the expressions used in them ; and though repentance
(which is also added) will not deliver them from temporal
or natural death, yet it will and may as [it] did Ahab in part,
from having that death inflicted in the way of an extraordi-
nary judgment.
Sect. 4. Mr. Goodwin offers sundry things, all of the
same importance and tendency, all animated by the same
fallacies or mistakes, to make good the sense he insists on,
exclusively to all others, of these words, *he shall die,' and
he tells you, that, ' if the righteousness such men have done
shall come into no account, that it shall not profit him as
to his temporal deliverance, then it is impossible it should
profit him as to his eternal salvation.' But first, according
to our interpretation of the words, there is no necessity in-
cumbent on us to affirm that the persons mentioned shall
obtain salvation, though we say that eternal death is not
precisely threatened in the words ; but yet, that a man may
not by the just hand of God be punished with temporal
death for his faults and iniquities (as Josiah fell by the
sword), and yet have his righteousness reckoned to him as
to his great recompense of reward, is a strain of doctrine
that Mr. Goodwin will scarce abide by. I dare not say that
all who died in the wilderness of the children of Israel, went
to hell, and came short of eternal life ; and yet they all fell
there because of their iniquities. But he adds.
Sect. 4. ' Again, that which God here threateneth against
that double or twofold iniquity of backsliding, is opposed
to that life which is promised to repentance and persever-
ance in their well-doing ; but this life is confessed by all to
be eternal life, therefore, the death opposite to it, must needs
be eternal, or the second death. When the apostle saith. The
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
through Christ Jesus our Lord, Rom. vi. 23. is it not evi-
278 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
dent from the antithesis, or opposition in the tendency be-
tween the death and life mentioned in it, that by that death,
which he affirms to be the wages of sin, is meant eternal
death, how else will the opposition stand ?'
Ans. It is true the life and death here mentioned, the one
promised ver. 9. the other threatened in those insisted on,
are opposed, and of what nature and kind the one is, of
the same is the other to be esteemed. It is also confessed,
that the life promised in the covenant of mercy to repent-
ance is eternal life, and the wages of sin mentioned in the
law is death eternal ; but that therefore, that must be the
sense of the words when they are made use of, in answer to
an objection expressed in a proverb concerning the land of
Israel, and when it was temporal death that was complained
of before in the proverb, the 'fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children's teeth are set on edge' (they did not
complain that they were damned for their fathers' sins), that
Mr. Goodwin doth not attempt to prove ; and I do not blame
him for his silence therein. He says yet again,
' When God in the Scriptures threatens impenitent
persons with death for their sins, doubtless he intends and
means, eternal death, or that death which is the wages of
sin. Otherwise we have no sufficient ground to believe or
think, that men dying in their sins without repentance, shall
suffer the vengeance of eternal fire, not only a temporal or
natural death ; which those who are righteous and truly
eminent themselves suffer as well as they ; therefore, tosay
that God threatens impenitent apostates (in the place in
hand), with a temporal death only, when as elsewhere he
threatens impenitency under the lightest guilt of all, with
eternal death, is in effect, to represent him as vehement and
sore in his dissuasives from ordinary and lesser sins, as in-
different and remiss in dissuading from sins of the greatest
provocation.'
^iis. The sum of this reason is, if the death there threat-
ened to those men of our present contest be not death
eternal, we have no sufficient ground to believe that God
will inflict any death on impenitent apostates, but only that
which is temporal or natural, which others die as well as
they ; and why so, I beseech you ? is there no other place of
Scripture, whence it may be evinced, that eternal death is
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 279
the wages of sin ? Or is every place thereof where death is
threatened to sin, so circumstantiated as this place is? Is
the threatening everywhere given out upon the like occasion,
and to be accommodated to the like state of things ? These
discourses are exceeding loose, sophistical, and inconclusive ;
neither is a violent death counted natural, though it be the
dissolution of nature.
Neither is there any thing more added by Mr. Goodwin
in all his considerations of the words of this passage of
the Scriptures, than what we have insisted on : that he
nextly mentioneth (that if God here threateneth impenitent
sinners only with temporal death, then why should the most
profligate sinners fear any other punishment?) is of more
energy, for the confirmation and building up the sense
which he imposeth on the words, than that which went
before, they with whom he hath to do, will tell him that he
doth all along most vainly assume, and beg the thing in
question ; viz. That the persons intimated, are absolutely
impenitent sinners : and not so under some considerations
only ; that is, that do never recover themselves from their
degeneracy from close walking with God ; nor do the words
indeed necessarily import any thing else ; and for impenitent
sinners in general (not those who are only so termed) there
are testimonies sufficient in the scriptures concerning God's
righteous judgment, in their eternal condemnation.
And this is the first testimony produced by Mr. G. for
the proof of the saint's apostacy ; a witness which of all
others he doth most rely upon, and which he bringeth in
with the greatest acclamation of success (before the trial),
imaginable. That when he hath brought him forth, he gives
us no account in the least, whence he comes, what is his
business, or what he aims to confirm, nor can make good
his speaking one word on his behalf. Indeed as the matter
is handled, I something question whether lightly a weaker
argument hath been leaned on, in a case of so great im-
portance, than that which from these words is drawn for the
apostacy of the saints ; for as we have not the least attempt
made, to give us an account of the context, scope, and in-
tendment of the place (by which yet the expressions in the
verses insisted on must be regulated), no more can any one
expression in it, be made good, to be of that sense and sig-
280 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
nification, which yet alone will, or can yield, the least ad-
vantage to the cause, for whose protection it is so earnestly
called upon. Now the leaders and captains of the forces
Mr. Goodwin hath mustered in this 12th chapter being
thus discharged, the residue, or the followers thereof, will
easily be prevailed with, to return every one to his own
place in peace.
The next place of Scripture produced to consideration,
Mr. Goodwin ushers in, sect. 11. with a description of the
adversaries with whom in this context he hath to do, and
sets them off to public view, with the desirable qualifica-
tions of ignorance, prejudice, and partiality, having it seems,
neither ingenuity enough candidly and fairly themselves to
search into, and to weigh the Scriptures, wherein the case
in question is clearly determined ; nor skill enough to un-
derstand and receive them, when so dexterously opened to
their hand by Mr. G. What they are, the Lord knoweth,
will judge, determine, and in the appointed time declare :
and it may be the day that shall manifest all things, will
vindicate them from those reproaches ; in the meantime,
such expressions as these lie in the middle, between all
parties at variance, exposed to the use of any that is pleased
to take them up : the place insisted on in the sequel of this
preface, is the parable of our Saviour, Matt, xviii. 32, 33.
the whole extent of the parable is from ver. 20. to the end
of the chapter. Hence Mr. G. thus inferreth, sect. 11.
* Evident it is from our Saviour's rendition or application
of the parable (so likewise shall my heavenly Father do
also unto you, if, &c. speaking unto his disciples, ver. 1.
and to Peter more particularly, ver. 21.) that persons truly
regenerate, and justified before God (for such were they, to
whom in special manner he addresseth the parable, and the
application of it, and indeed the whole carriage of the
parable sheweth, that it was calculated and formed only for
such) may through high misdemeanours in sinning, as, for
example, by unmercifulness, cruelty, oppression, &c. turn
themselves out of the justifying grace and favour of God,
quench the Spirit of regeneration, and come to have their
portions with hypocrites and unbelievers.'
Ans. 1. This is not the only occasion whereupon we have
tp deal with this parable : the Socinians wrest it also with
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 281
violence, to disprove the satisfaction of Christ, from the
mention that is made in it of the free forgiveness of sins
and the Lord's enjoining others to do what he did ; they
doubtless being to forgive without satisfaction given or
made, as to any crimes committed againt them. Mr. Good-
win, with much less probability of drawing nigh to the in-
tendment of our Saviour in this place, makes use of it, or
rather abuses it, to countenance his doctrine of the apostacy
of the saints : to both, I say, parables have their bounds and
limits, their lines and proportions, scope and peculiar in-
tendment, beyond which they prove nothing at all : to wring
the nose of a parable or similitude, to force it to an uni-
versal compliance, will bring forth blood. There is nothing
so sottish, or foolish, or contradictious in, and to itself, as
may not be. countenanced, from teaching parables to be in-
structive, and proving, in every parcel or expression that
attends them. The intendment of the parable here used,
that wherein from the proportion, andanswerableness of the
comparats it argueth, is neither that God forgives without
satisfaction to his justice, being the judge of all the world,
. nor that believers may fall away by sins of unmercifulness
and oppression, and so perish everlastingly ; but that men
upon the account of mercy and forgiveness received from
God in Christ, ought to extend mercy and kindness to their
brethren, God threatening and revenging unmercifulness
and oppression, in and on whomsoever it is found ; whether
it be ignorance in us, or what it be, the Lord knows, and
will judge : but we are not able to stretch the lines of this
parable one step towards what Mr. Goodwin would lengthen
them unto ; that no persons whatever, must or ought to
expect the grace and pardoning mercy of God to them,
who have no bowels of compassion towards their brethren
is clearly taught ; in making the rest of the circumstances
of the parable argumentative, we cannot join with our ad-
versary, he himself in his so doing working merely for his
own ends.
2. Finding his exposition of this parable liable and ob-
noxious to an exception, in that it renders God changeable
in his dealings with men, and a knot to be cast on his
doctrine, which he is not able to untie, he ventures boldly
to cut it in pieces, by affirming ' that indeed God loves no
282 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
man at all, with any love, but the approbation of the quali-
fications that are in him, and that he cannot be said to
change in reference of that, which is not in him at all ;*
this he sets out, and illustrates variously with the dealings
of men, and the laws that are made amongst them, rewarding
what is good, and punishing what is evil, &.c. words fully
fitted in his apprehension, to the clearing of God from any
shadow of alteration in that course of proceeding which to
him he ascribes, and tells you, 'the root of the mistake con-
cerning the love of God' towards any man's person, lies in
that ' capital erroi", of personal election,' or a purpose of God
to give grace and glory to any one in Christ : kukov Kopa-
Kog KaKUJvwov. That Mr. Goodwin doth at all understand
the love of God, if his apprehension of it be uniform to
what he expresseth here in disputation, I must question.
An eternal, unchangeable love of God, to some, in Christ,
is not now my task to demonstrate ; it may through the
patience and goodness of God, find a place in my weak en-
deavours for the Lord, ere long; : when it will be a matter of
delight to consider the Scriptures and testimonies of an-
tiquity, that Mr. G. will produce for the eversion of such a
personal election; for the present I shall only take notice of
the face of his judgment in the thing, which, sect. 13. he
here delivers : ' all the love which God bears to men, or to
any person of man, is either in respect of their nature, and
as they are men, in respect of which he bears a general or
common love to them, or in respect of their qualification
as they are. good men, in one degree or other, in respect
whereof he bears a more special love to them.' What that
common love is, in Mr. Goodwin's doctrine, which God
bears to all men, as men, we know full well : he also himself
is not unacquainted how often it hath been demonstrated to
be a vain and foolish figment (in the sense by him and his
associates obtruded on us) derogatory to all the glorious
properties of the nature of God, and inconsistent with any
thing;, that of himself he hath revealed. The demonstration
and farther eviction whereof waits its season, which I hope
draweth on. The special love which he bears persons in
respect of their qualifications, is only his approbation of
those qualifications, wherever they are, and in whomsoever :
that these qualifications are faith, love, repentance, gospel
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 283
obedience, &c. is not called into question. I would fain
know of Mr. Goodwin, on what account and consideration,
some men, and not all, are translated from the condition of
being objects of God's common love, to become objects of
his peculiar love ; or from whence spring these qualifications,
which are the procurement of it ; whether they are from any
love of God to them, in whom they are ? . If not, on what
account do men come to have faith, love, obedience, &c. If
they are from any love of God, whether it be from the com-
mon love of God to man, as men ? And if so, why are not
all men endowed with those qualifications? If from his pe-
culiar love, how come they to be the effects and causes of
the same thing ? Or whether indeed this assertion be not
destructive to the whole covenant of grace, and the effectual
dispensations of it in the blood of Christ ? And to his
second testimony I shall add no more.
The third place insisted on, is that of the apostle, 1 Cor.
ix. 27. Hence he thus argueth :
* If Paul, after his conversion unto Christ, was in a possi-
bility of being, or becoming a reprobate, or cast away, then
may true believers fall away, both totally and finally (for fi-
nally ever includes totally) but the antecedent is true : Paul
after his conversion, was in the possibility mentioned; e7-go.
The major proposition, I presume, will pass without con-
trol.'
j4m. That Mr. Goodwin is not able to make good either
of the propositions in this syllogism, will evidently appear
in the conclusion of our examination, of what he draws
forth, new and old to that purpose; of the major he gives
you only this account : * It will pass, I presume, without con-
trol.' But by his favour, unless cleared from ambiguity of
expressions and fallacy, it is not like to obtain so fair a pas-
sage as is presumed and fancied.
Though the term of ' possibility' in the supposition, and
'may be,' in the inference, seem to be equipollent, yet to ren-
der them of the same significancy, as to the argument in
hand, they must both be used in the same respect; but if a
possibility of being a reprobate (that is, one rejected of
God, by a metonymy of the effect), be ascribed to Paul in
respect of himself, and the infirmity of his own will as to
abiding with God, in which case alone there is any appear
284 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
ance of truth in the assumption of this supposition, and the
term of * may be/ in respect of believers falling totally and
finally away, respects the event and purpose, decrees or
promise of God, concerning it (in which sense alone, it is
any step to the purpose in hand), I deny the inference, and
thereby at the very entrance, give check and control to
Mr. Goodwin's procedure. That which is possible to come
to pass, that term 'possible,' affecting the end, or coming to
pass, must be every way, and in all respects possible : this
is the intendment of the inference. That which is possible
in respect of some certain causes, or principles (the terras
of possibility affecting the thing itself, whereof it is spoken
in its next causes) may be impossible on another account ;
and in this sense only is there any colour of truth contained
in the supposition ; so that the major proposition of this syl-
logism, is laid up and secured for doing any farther service
in this case.
The minor is, ' But Paul after his conversion was in a pos-
sibility of becoming a reprobate or cast-away.'
ylns. He was not in respect of the event, upon the ac-
count of the purpose and promises of God of him and to
him made in Christ ; though any such possibility may be
affirmed of him, in respect of himself, and his own will, not
confirmed in grace, unto an impossibility of swerving :
now this proposition he thus farther attempts syllogistically
to confirm.
'That which Paul was very solicitous and industrious to
prevent, he was in a possibility of suffering or being made.
But Paul was very solicitous and industrious to prevent his
being made a cast-away, as the Scripture in hand plainly
avoucheth ; he kept under his body and brought it in sub-
jection ; in order to prevent his becoming a cast-away: ergo,
he was in danger or possibility of being made a cast-away.
The reason of the consequence in the major proposition, is,
because no man of understanding will be solicitous to prevent
or hinder the coming to pass of such a thing, the coming to
pass whereof, he knows to be impossible.'
Alls. Once more. The major is questioned. Paul might
and ought to labour in the use of means, for the preventing
of that, which in respect of hirasell' he might possibly run
into, God having appointed those means to be used for the
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 285
prevention of the end feared and avoided ; although in re-
spect of some other preventing cause, it was impossible he
should so do. He who complained * that in him, that is in
his flesh dwelleth no good, that he had a law in his members
leading him captive to the law of sin, and sin working in
him all manner of concupisence' for whose prevention from
running out into a course of sinning, God hath appointed
means to be used, might use those means for that end, not-
withstanding that God had immutably purposed, and faith-
fully promised, that in the use of those means, he should
attain the end aimed at. And the reason Mr. Goodwin
gives for the confirmation of the consequence is no other,
but that which we have so often exploded ; viz. That a man
need not, ought not to use means for attaining of any end,
though appointed and instituted of God for that end and
purpose ; if so be the end for which they are ordained shall
certainly and infallibly be compassed and accomplished by
. them. Our Saviour Christ thought meet to use the ordinary
ways for the preservation of his life, notwithstanding the
promise of keeping him by the angels : and Hezekiah neg-
lected not the means of life, notwithstanding the infallible
promise of living so long, which he had received : Paul was
careful in the use of means, to prevent that which in himself
it was possible for him to run into, though he had or might
have assurance, that through the faithfulness and power of
God, in the use of those means (as an antecedent of the
consequent, though not the conditions of the event), he
should be preserved certainly and infallibly from what he
was so in himself apt unto. So that whatever be the pecu-
liar intendment of the apostle in this place, taking the term
aSoKtjuoc in the largest sense possible, and in a significancy
of the greatest compass, yet nothing will regularly be inferred
thence, to the least prejudice of the doctrine I have under-
taken to maintain.
And this may suffice as to the utmost of what Mr. Good-
win's argument from this place doth reach unto. There is
another, and that a more proper sense of the place, and ac-
commodated to the context and scope of the apostle where-
with the doctrine endeavoured to be confirmed from hence,
hath not the least pretence of communication. And this
ariseth (as was before manifested) from the scope of the place.
286 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
with the proper uative signification of the word aSoKi/Jiog,
here translated a cast-away.
The business that the apostle hath in hand, from ver. 15.
of the chapter, and which he presses to the end, is a relation
of his own principles, ways, and deportment in the great
work of the preaching of the gospel to him committed ; in
the last words of the chapter he acquaints us with one espe-
cial aim he had in the carrying on of that work, through
the whole course of his employment therein. And is his
such care and endeavour after personal mortification, holi-
ness, and self-denial, that he might no way be lifted up, nor
entangled with the revelations made to him ; therein pro-
viding in the midst of the great certainty and assurance
which he had, ver. 26. that he might approve himself a
workman not needing to be ashamed, as not only preaching
to others for their good, but himself also accepted of God,
in the discharge of that employment, as one that had dealt
uprightly and faithfully therein : ver. 17. he acquaints us
with what is the state and condition of them that preach the
gospel, their work may go on, and yet themselves not be
approved in the work : this he laboured to prevent; walking
uprightly, faithfully, sincerely, zealously, humbly, in the dis-
charge of his duty : fxij-jroyg aXXoig Kripv^ag, saith he, avrog
aSoKtjuoc yfvw/xat, ' least having preached to others he should
not himself be approved and accepted in that work, and so
lose the reward mentioned,' ver. 17. peculiar to them, who
walk in the discharge of their duty with a right foot, ac-
cording to the mind of God. The whole context, design,
and scope of the apostle, with the native signification of the
word a^oKi/jLog, leading us evidently and directly to this in-
terpretation, it is sufficiently clear, that Mr. Goodwin is like
to find little shelter for his apostacy, in this assertion of the
apostle. And besides, whatever be the importance of the
word, the apostle mentions not any thing but his conscien-
tious diligent use of the means, for the attaining of an end,
which end yet may fully be promised of God to be so brought
about and accomplished.
Mr. Goodwin tells us indeed, that the word ddoKifiog ' is in
the writings of the apostle, constantly translated reprobate ;
as Rom. i. 28. 2 Cor. xiii. 5—7. 2 Tim. iii. 8. Tit. i. 16. or
is expressed by a word equivalent, as Heb. vi. 8.' How rightly
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 287
this is done, in his judgment he tells us not: that it is so
done, serves his turn ; and he hath no cause farther to trou-
ble himself about it. The truth is, in most of the places in-
timated, the word is so restrained, either from the causes of
the thing expressed, as Rom. i. 28. or the condition of the
persons of whom it is affirmed, with some adjunct in the use
of it, as 2 Tim. iii. 8. Tit. i. 16. that it necessarily imports a
disallowance or rejection of God, as to the whole state and
condition wherein they are of whom it is asserted, joined
with a profligate disposition to farther abominations in them-
selves ; that in any place it imports, what Mr. Goodwin
would wrest it here unto, a man finally rejected of God,
whatever may be the thought of others, he will not assert:
and whatever the translation be, I would know of him, whe-
ther in any place, where the word is used, he doth indeed
understand it in any other sense, than that which here he
opposes ; only with this difference, that in other places it
regards the general condition and state of them, concerning
whom it is affirmed ; here only the condition of a man, re-
strained to the particular case of labouring in the ministry,
which is under consideration, 2 Cor. xiii. 5 — 7. The word
cannot be extended any farther than to signify a condition
of men, when they are not accepted nor approved ; which is
the sense of the word contended for ; nor yet Heb. vi. 8.
though it be attended with those several qualifications of
*nigh unto cursing,' &c. The apostle ascending by degrees in
the description of the state of the unfruitful barren land,
says first it is a^oKinog, or disallowed by the husbandman,
as that which he hath spent his cost and labour about in
vain ; so that not only the original first signification of the
word (as is known) stands for- the sense contended for, but
it is also evidently restrained to that sense by the context,
design, and scope of the place, with the intendment of the
apostle therein ; the word being the same that in all other
places of the writings of the same apostle, unless where it is
measured, as to its extent and compass, by some adjoined
expression, which is interpretative of it, as to the particular
place, being still of the same signification.
Mr. Goodwin's ensuing discourse, is concerning the judg-
ment of expositors upon the place, particularly naming Chry-
sostom, Calvin, Musculus, Deodate, the English annotators.
288 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
of whom notwithstanding, not any one do appear for hiin,
so unhappy is he in his quotations, though sundry of good
note (and amongst them Piscator himself) do interpret the
word in the sense by him contended for ; knowing full well,
that it may be allowed in its utmost significancy, without
the least prejudice to the doctrine of the saints' persever-
ance, as hath been manifested : of these mentioned by Mr.
Goodwin, there is not any one, from first to last, but re-
strained the word to the reproachableness or inreproachable-
ness of the apostle, in the discharge of the work of the mi-
nistry, the sense of it, which we also insist upon; to spend
time and labour in searching the expressions of particular
men, weighing and considering the coherences, design, and
circumstances of their writings, is beside my intention ;
the judgment of what hath been affirmed is left to the in-
telligent reader, who supposeth it of his concernment to in-
quire particularly into it.
What is added of the scope of the place, sect. 15. p. 280.
alone requires any farther consideration ; this he then thus
proposeth :
5. ' The scope of the place from ver. 23. evinceth the le-
gitimacy of such a sense in both^ above all contradiction ;
for the apostle, having asserted this for the reason, motive,
and end, why he had made himself a servant to all men, in
bearing with all men's weaknesses and humours in the course
of his ministry; viz. that he might be partaker of the gospel
(i. e. of the saving benefit or blessing of the gospel) with
them, ver. 23. and again, that what he did, he did to obtain
an incorruptible crown ; ver. 25. plainly sheweth, that that
which he sought to prevent, by running and fighting at such
a high rate as he did, was not the blame and disparagement
of some such misbehaviour, under which notwithstanding he
might retain the saving love of God, but the loss of his part
and portion in the gospel, and of that incorruptible crown
which he sought by that severe hand, which he still held
over himself, to obtain.'
A?ts. The scope of the place was before manifested, in
answer to its dependance on the whole discourse foregoing,
from ver. 15. where the apostle enters upon the relation of
his deportment, in the work and service of the gospel, with
a particular eye to his carriage therein, as to his use or for-
EXPLAINED AXD CONFIRMED. 289
bearance, of the allowance of temporal things, from them to
whom he preached, which was due to him by all right, where-
by any claim in any kind whatever may be pursued, toge-
ther with the express institution of the Lord Jesus Christ,
by him before laid down. In this course he behaved him-
self with wisdom, zeal, and diligence, having many glorious
aims in his eye, as also being full of a sense of the duty in-
cumbent on him, ver. 6. to whose performance he was con-
strained by the law of Jesus Christ, as he also here expresses.
Among other things that provoked him to, and supported
him in, his hard labour and travel was, the love he bare to
the gospel, and that he might have with others fellowship
in the propagation and declaration of the glorious message
thereof. This is his intendment ver. 23. tovto Se, &c. For
the gospel's sake, or the love he bare to it, he desired with
others to be partaker of it ; that is, of the excellent work of
preaching of it ; for of the benefit of the gospel he might
have been partaker with other believers, though he had never
been set apart to its promulgation. In his whole discourse
he still speaks accommodately to his business in hand; for
the describing of his work of apostleship, in preaching the
glorious gospel of Jesus Christ ; and as to the end of this
work, he acquaints us that there was proposed before him
the incorruptible crown of his Master's approbation (upon
his lawful running and striving in the way of the ministry,
whereto he was called), the peculiar glory of them whom he
is pleased to employ in this service ; and though the cause of
his fighting at that rate as he did was not wholly the fear
of non-approbation in that work, a necessity of duty being
incumbent on him, which he was to discharge, yet he that
knows how to value the crown of approbation from Christ,
the holy angels and the church, of having faithfully dis-
charged the office of a steward in dispensing the things of
God, will think it sufficiently effectual to stir up any one to
the utmost expense of love, pains, and diligence, that he
may not come short of it : and of Mr. Goodwin's proof this
is the issue.
His next is from Heb. vi. 4 — 7. with x. 26, 27. which he
brings in, attended with the ensuing discourse, sect. 18.
* The next passage we shall insist upon to evince the pos-
sibility of a final defection in the saints, openeth itself in
VOL. VII. V
290 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVEUAXCE
these words ; For it is impossible for those who were once
enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were
made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the
good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if
they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance ;
seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and
put him to an open shame. For the earth, which drinketh
in the rain, that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs
meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from
God. But that which beareth thorns and briers, is rejected
and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. An-
swerable hereunto is another in the same Epistle ; For if
we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the
truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a cer-
tain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation,
which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses's
law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of
how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought
worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and
hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was
sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the
Spirit of grace. Evident it is, that in these two passages
the Holy Ghost, after a serious manner, and with a very pa-
thetic and moving strain of speech and discourse (scarce
the bke to be found in all the Scriptures) admonisheth those
who are at present true believers, to take heed of relapsing
into the ways of their former ignorance and impiety. This
caveat or admonition he presseth by an argument of this im-
port; that in case they shall thus relapse, there will be very
little or no hope at all, of their recovery or return to the
estate of faith and grace, wherein now they stand. Before
the faces of such sayings and passages as these, rightly un-
derstood and duly considered, there is no standing for that
doctrine, which denies a possibility either of a total or final
defection of the saints. But this light also is darkened in
the heavens, by the interposition of the vails of these two
exceptions : 1. That the apostle in the said passages af-
firms nothing positively, concerning the falling away of
those he speaks of, but only conditionally and upon suppo-
sition. 2. That he doth not speak of true and sound be-
lievers, but of hypocrites, and such who had faith only in
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 291
shew, not in substance. The former of these exceptions
hath been ah'eady nonsuited, and that by some of the ablest
patrons themselves of the cause of perseverance ; where we
were taught from a pen of that learning, that such condi-
tional sayings, upon which admonitions, promises, or threat-
enings are built, do at least suppose something impossible,
however, by virtue of their tenor and form, they suppose
nothing in being. But,
* As to the places in hand, there is not any hypothetical
sign, or conditional particle to be found in either of them, as
they come from the Holy Ghost, and are carried in the ori-
ginal. Those two ifs, appearing in the English translation,
the one in the former place, the other in the latter, shew (it
may be) the translators' inclination to the cause, but not
their faithfulness in their engagement ; an infirmity where-
unto they were very subject, as we shall have occasion to
take notice of the second time ere long, in another instance
of the like partiality. But the tenor of both the passages in
hand, is so ordered by the apostle, that he plainly declares,
how great and fearful the danger is, or will be, when be-
lievers do, or shall fall away, not if, or in case they shall
fall away.'
Ans. Of the two answers, which as himself signifieth, are
usually given to the objections from these places of Scrip-
ture, that Mr. Goodwin doth not fairly acquit his hands of
either, will quickly appear.
1. To the first, that the form of speech used by the apo-
stle in both places is conditional, whence there is no argu-
ing to the event, without begging the thing in question, or
supposal, that the condition in all respects may be fulfilled,
where it requires only to the constitution of it as a condi-
tion in the place of arguing, wherein it is used, that it may
be possible in some only, he opposeth.
That some of them, who have wrote for the 'doctrine of
the saints' perseverance,' have disclaimed the use of it, as to
its application to the place in Ezekiel formerly considered ;
but yet leaving them to the liberty of their judgment, who
are so minded, that the reason given by them, and here again
repeated by Mr. Goodwin, doth not in the least enforce any
to let go this answer to the objection proposed, that shall be
pleased to insist upon it, hath been manifested.
u2
292 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
To this Mr. Goodwin farther adds that weighty obser-
vation, that the word 'if,' is not in the original, and thence
takes occasion to fall foul upon the translators, as having cor-
rujDted the passages out of favour to the doctrine contended
for. I wish they had never worse mistaken, nor shewed
more partiality in any other place; for first, will Mr. Good-
win deny that a proposition cannot be hypothetical, nor an
expression conditional, unless the word 'if,' be expressed?
were it worth the labour, instances might abundantly be
given him in that language wiiereof we speak, to the con-
trary. He that shall say to him as he is journeying, going
the right hand way you will meet with thieves, may be doubt-
less said to speak conditionally, no less than he that should
expressly tell him, ' If you go the way on the right hand
vou shall meet with thieves.' Secondly, What clear sense
and significancy can be given the words, without the sup-
plement of the conditional conjunction, or some other term
equipolent thereunto, Mr. Goodwithhath not declared. 'For
it is impossible for those who were once enlightened,' &c.
and they falling away : as the words (verbum de verbo) lie
in the text, is scarce in English a congurous or significant
expression : yea, koX TrapaireaovTag in the syntax and cohe-
rence wherein it lies, is most properly and directly rendered,
* if they fall away ;' as is also the force of the expression,
chap. X. 26. Yea, thirdly, the connexion of the translation
mentioned by Mr. Goodwin, doth not in the least relieve
him, as to the delivery of the words from a sense, liypothe-
tical. ' When they fall away'(though his ' when,' be no more
in the text, than the translators' ' if), doth either include a
supposition, that they shall and must fall away certainly,
and so requires the event of the thing whereof it is spoken,
or it is expressive only of the condition, whereon the event
is suspended ; if it be taken in the first sense, all believers
must fall away : if in the latter none may, notwithstanding
any thing in this text (so learnedly restored to its true sig-
nificancy), the words only pointing at the connexion, that is
between apostacy and punishment. Notwithstanding then
any thing here offered to the contrary, those who alHrm that
nothing can certainly be concluded from these places for the
apostacy of any, be they who they will that are intended in
them, because they are conditional assertions, manifesting
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 293
only the connexion between the sin and punishment ex-
pressed, need not be ashamed of, nor recoil from their affir-
mation in the least.
For mine own part, I confess, I do not in any measure
think it needful to insist upon the conditionals of these as-
sertions of the Holy Ghost, as to the removal of any, or all
the oppositions that from them of old, or of late have been
raised and framed against the doctrine of the saints' perse-
verance, there being in neither of the texts insisted on, either
name or thing inquired after ; nor any one of all the severals
inquired into, and constantly in the Scriptures used in the
description of the saints and believers of whom we speak.
This I shall briefly in the first place demonstrate, and then
proceed with the consideration of what is offered by Mr.
Goodwin in opposition thereunto. Some few observations
will lead us through the first part of this work designed. I
say then,
1. There is an inferior common work of the Holy Ghost,
in the dispensation of the word upon many to whom it is
preached, causing in them a great alteration and change, as
to light, knowledge, abilities, gifts, affections, life, and con-
versation, when the persons so wrought upon are not
quickened, regenerate, nor made new creatures, nor united
to Jesus Christ. I suppose there will not be need for me
to insist on the proof of this proposition, the truth of it being
notoriously known and confessed as I supposed amongst all
that profess the name of Christ.
2. That in persons thus wrought upon, there is or may
be, such an assent upon light and conviction to the truths
proposed and preached to them, as is true in its kind, not
counterfeit, giving and affording them in whom it is
wrought, profession of the faith, and that sometimes with
constancy to the death, or the giving of their bodies to be
burned, with persuasions (whence they are called believers),
of a future enjoyment of a glorious and blessed condition,
filling them with ravished affections and rejoicings in hope,
which they profess suitable to the expectation they have, of
such a state and condition. This also might be easily
evinced by innumerable instances and examples from the
Scripture, if need required.
3. That the persons in and upon whom this work is
294 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PEUSEVERAXCE
wrought, cannot be said to be hypocrites in the most proper
sense of thatword : that is, such as counterfeit and pretend
themselves to be that, which they know they are not ; nor
to have faith only in shew, and not in substance, as though
they made a shew and pretence only of an assent to the
things they professed ; their high gifts, knowledge, faith,
change of affections and conversation, being in their own
kind true (as the faith of devils is), and yet notwithstand-
ing all this they are in bondage, and at best seek for a righ-
teousness as it were by the works of the law, and in the
issue, Christ proves to tjiem of none effect.
4. That among these persons, many are oftentimes en-
dued with excellent gifts, lovely parts, qualifications, and
abilites, rendering them exceeding useful, acceptable, and
serviceable to the church of God, becoming vessels in his
house, to hold and convey to others the precious liquor of
the gospel, though their nature in themselves be not changed,
they remaining wood and stone still.
5. That much of the work wrought in and upon this
sort of persons by the Spirit and word, lies in its own nature
in a direct tendency to their relinquishment of their sins
and self-righteousness, and to a closing with God in Christ,
having a mighty prevalency upon them to cause them to
amend their ways, and to labour after life and salvation :
from which to apostatize and fall off, upon the account of
the tendency mentioned of these beginnings is dangerous,
and for the most part pernicious.
6. That persons under convictions and works of the
Spirit formerly mentioned, partakers of the gifts, light, and
knowledge, spoken of, with those other endowments attend-
ing them, are capacitated for the sin against the Holy Ghost,
or the unpardonable apostacy from God.
These things being commonly known, and as far as I
know, universally granted, I affirm that the persons men-
tioned and intended in these places, are such as have been
now described, and not the believers or saints, concerning
whom alone our contest is.
Mr. Goodwin replies, sect. 19. p. 183.
*To the latter exception which pretends to find only hy-
pocrites, and not true believers, staged in both passages, we
likewise answer, that it glosseth no whit better than the
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 295
former, if not much worse, considering that the persons
presented in the said passages, are described by such cha-
racters, and signal excellencies which the Scriptures are wont
to appropriate unto saints and true believers, and that when
they intend to shew them in the best and greatest of their
glory : what we say herein, will, I suppose, be made above
all gainsaying, by instancing particulars.'
A)fs. That this is most remote from truth, and that there
is not here any one discriminating character of true be-
lievers, so far are the expressions from setting them out in
any signal eminency, will appear from these ensuing consi-
derations.
1. There is no mention of faith or believing, either in
express terms, or in terms of an equivalent significancy in
either of the places mentioned. Therefore true believers
are not the persons intended to be described in these
places. Did the Holy Ghost intend to describe believers,
it is very strange that he should not call them so, nor
make mention of any one of those principles in them
from whence, and whereby they are such. Wherefore I
say,
2. There is not any thing ascribed here to the persons
spoken of, which belongs peculiarly to true believers, as
such, or that constitutes them to be such, and which yet are
things plainly and positively asserted and described in in-
numerable other places of Scripture ; that the persons de-
scribed are, ' called according to the purpose of God, quick-
ened, born again or regenerated, justified, united to Christ,
sanctified by the Spirit, adopted, made sons of God,' and
the like, which are the usual expressions of believers, point-
ing out their discriminating form as such, is not in the least
intimated in the text, context, or any concernment of it.
That they are elected of God, redeemed of Christ, sanctified
by the Spirit, that they are made holy, is not at all af-
firmed.
3. The persons intended, are ver. 8. chap. vi. compared
to the ground upon which the rain falls, and beareth
thorns and briers. True believers, whilst they are so, are not
such as do bring forth nothing but 'thorns and briers;'
faith itself being a ' herb meet for him by whom they are
dressed.'
296 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
4. Things that accompany salvation, are better things
than any in the persons mentioned were to be found. This
the apostle asserts, ver. 9. 'we are persuaded better things
of you, and things that accompany salvation.' Now neither
of these, either better things, or things that accompany sal-
vation, were upon them whose apostacy the apostle sup-
poseth. The exceptive particle at the entrance, with the
apologetical design of the whole verse, ascribes such things
to the saints, to whom the apostle speaks, as they were not
partakers of, concerning whom he had immediately before
discoursed. The faith of God's elect, whereby we are jus-
tified, is doubtless of the 'things that accompany salvation.'
5. The persons intended by the apostle, were such, as
' had need to be taught again the first principles of the ora-
cles of God ;' chap. v. 12. that were ' unskilful in a word of
righteousness;' ver. 15. that had not their ' senses exercised
to discern good and evil ;' ver. 14. and are plainly distin-
guished from them, to whom the promise made to Abra-
ham doth properly belong ; chap. vi. 9 — 14, Sec.
6. True believers are opposed in the discourse of the
apostle, chap. vi. unto these persons lying under a possi-
bility of apostacy, so far as they are cast under it, by the
conditional discourse of it, upon sundry accounts. As,
1, Of their works and labour of love shewed to the
name of God ; ver. 10. of their preservation from the righte-
ousness or faithfulness of God, in his promises; ver, 11. Of
the immutability of the counsels of God, and his oath for the
preservation of them; ver. 13. 17, 18. Of their sure and
steadfast anchor of hope ; ver. 19, &c. Upon all which con-
siderations it is abundantly evident, that they are not be-
lievers, the children of God, justified, sanctified, adopted
saints, of whom the apostle treats in the passages in-
sisted on.
Sect. 28. Mr. Goodwin urges sundry reasons to prove
that they are not hypocrites or outside professors only, but
true believers that are described. If by hypocrites and out-
side professors he intends those who are grossly so, pre-
tending to be what they are not, and what they know them-
selves not to be, we contend not about it : if by those ex-
pressions he compriseth also those whom we characterized
in the entrance of this discourse, who unto their profession
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 297
of the faith, have also added those gifts and endowments,
with the like, which we mentioned, notwithstanding all their
advancement in light, conviction, joy, usefulness, conver-
sation, do yet come short of union with Christ, I shall join
issue with him, in the consideration of his reasons offered
to be pregnant of proof for the confirmation of his assertion.
He tells you, sect. 28. p. 288.
* 1. There is no clause, phrase, or word, in either of the
places, any ways characteristical or descriptive of hypocrisy,
or hypocrites, there are none of those colours to be seen,
which are wont to be used in drawing or limning the por-
traitures or shapes of those beasts, as distinguished from
creatures of a better kind. All the lineaments of the per-
sons presented in these tables, before the mention of their
falling away, become the best and fairest faces of the saints
(as hath been proved), and are not to be found in any other.
Yea, the greatest and most intelligent believer under heaven,
hath no reason but to desire part and fellowship with the
hypocrites here described, in all those characters and pro-
perties which are attributed unto them before their falling
away, or sinning wilfully.'
Ans. 1. The design of the apostle is not to discover, or
give any characters of hypocrites, to manifest them to be
such, but to declare the excellencies that are, or may be
found in them, from the enjoyment of all which they may
decline, and sin against the mercy and grace of them, to the
aggravation of their condemnation. Neither had any lines
used to particularize those beasts in their shape, wherein
they differ from believers, been at all useful to the apostle's
purpose ; his aim being only to draw those wherein they are
like them, and conformable to them. Neither,
2. Is it questioned whether these things here mentioned,
may be found in true believers, and become them very well,
rendering their faces beautiful, but whether there be not
something else than what is here mentioned, that should
give them being, as such, and life, without which these
things are little better than painting. Nor,
3. Is it at all to the purpose, that believers may desire a
participation in these characters with the persons described,
but whether they who have no other characters or marks
upon them of true believers, than what are here mentioned.
298 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERAXCE
must necessarily be so accounted, or will of God be so ac-
cepted. Many a believer may desire the gifts of those hy-
pocrites, who have not one dram of the grace, wherewith he
is quickened. So that this first reason as pregnant as it
seems of proof, is only indeed swelled and puffed up with
wind and vanity. He adds,
' 2. True believers, are in estate of honour, and are
lifted up on high towards the heavens, in which respect they
have from whence to fall. But hypocrites are as near hell
already as lightly they can be, till they be actually fallen into
it. From whence then are they capable of fallings? Men of
estates may fail and break, but beggars are in no such dan-
ger. If hypocrites fall away, it must be from their hy-
pocrisy, but this is rather a rising than a fall. A beggar
cannot be said to break but only when he gets an estate.
When he doth this, the beggar is broke.'
Ans. All that here is added, arises merely from the am-
biguity of the word hyjjocrites ; the persons that fall, are on
all hands supposed to have, and enjoy all, that is made
mention of in the texts insisted on, so that they have so much
to fall from, as that thereupon Mr. Goodwin thinks them true
believers. They have all the heights to tumble from, which
we before mentioned, and very many others, that it is no easy
task to declare. They fall from the excellencies they have,
and not the hypocrisy, with which they are vitiated ; from
the profession of the faith, with honesty of conversation, &c.
not from the want of root, or being built on the rock : so that
this pretended pregnant reason is as barren as the former,
to the production of the assertion laid down to be proved by
it. He adds,
' 3. It is no punishment at all to hypocrites to be under
no possibility of being renewed again by repentance. Nay,
in case they should fall away, it would be a benefit and
blessing unto them, to be under an impossibility of being-
renewed again. For if this were their case it would be im-
possible for them to be ever hypocrites again, and (doubt-
less) it is no great judgment upon any man to be incapable
of such a preferment.'
Ans. 1. Whether it be no punishment for them who have
been in so good a way, a way of such tendency unto salva-
tion, and such usefulness to the gospel, as these persons
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 299
are supposed to be in ; not to be renewed again to that state
and condition, but to be shut up unrecoverably under the
power of darkness and unbelief, unto eternal wrath, when
before they were in a fair way for hfe and salvation, others
will judge beside Mr. Goodwin, Neither is there an affir-
mation of their falling away from their hypocrisy, and be-
ing renewed again thereunto, in any thing we assert in the
exposition of this place, but their falling away from gifts
and common graces, with the impossibility of what kind
soever it be, of being renewed to an enjoyment of them any
more. His fourth and last attempt follows.
* 4. And lastly, It stands off, forty foot at least, from all
probability, that the apostle writing only unto those, whom
he judged true and sound believers (as appears from seve-
ral places in the epistle, as cliap. iii. 14. vi. 9, &c.) should
in the most serious, emphatical and weighty passages here-
of, admonish them of such evils or dangers, which only con-
cerned other men, and whereunto themselves were not at
all obnoxious, yea and whereunto if they had been obnox-
ious, all the cautions, admonitions, warnings, threatenings,
in the world would not (according to their principles, with
whom we have now to do) have relieved or delivered them.
To say that such admonitions are a means to preserve those
from apostacy, who are by other means (as suppose the ab-
solute decree of God, or the interposal of his irresistible
power for their perseverance, or the like) in no possibility
of apostatizing, as to say that washing is a means to make
snow white, or the rearing up of a pillar in the air a means
to keep the heavens from falling. But more of this in the
chapter following.'
Ans. What exact measure soever Mr. Goodwin seemeth
to have taken of the distance of our assertion from all pro-
bability (which he hath accurately performed, if we may
take his word), yet upon due consideration it evidently
appears, that he is not able to disprove it, from coming close
up to the absolute truth of the meaning and scope of the
Holy Ghost in the places under consideration. For besides
what hath been already argued, and proved, it is evident,
1. That the apostle wrote promiscuously to all that pro-
fess the name of Christ and his gospel, of whom he tells
you, chap. iii. 14. (one of the places we are directed to by
300 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
Mr. Goodwin) that those only are made * partakers of Christ,
who hold the beginning of their confidence to the end ;' for
the rest, notwithstanding all their glorious profession, gifts,
and attainments, yet they are not truly made partakers of
Christ (whereby he cuts the throat of Mr. Goodwin's whole
cause), and chap. vi. 9. that there were amongst them, who
had attained things accompanying salvation, and better
things than any of those had done, who notwithstanding
their profession, yet held it not fast without wavering, but
every day fell away; so that though he judged no particu-
lars before their apostacy, yet he partly intimates, that all
professors were not true believers, and therefore, does teach
them all to make sure work in closing with Christ, lest
they turn apostates and perish in so doing.
2. That conditional comminations and threatenings, dis-
covering the connexion that is between the antecedent and
consequent, that is in the proposition of them, are and may
be of use to the saints of God, preserved from the end
threatened and the cause deserving it, upon the accounts,
reasons, and causes, that have been plentifully insisted on,
hath more than once been declared ; and the objections to
the contrary the same with those here insisted on, answered
and removed. This being all that Mr. Goodwin hath to
offer, by the way of reason, to exclude the persons formerly
described to be the only concernment of the place of Scrip-
ture insisted on, there remains nothing but only the consi-
deration of the severals of the passages debated, wherein
by the light that hath already broken forth, from the cir-
cumstances, aims, ends, and connexion of the places, we
may so far receive direction, as not to be at all stumbled in
our progress.
With the consideration of the several expressions in the
passages under debate, Mr. Goodwin proceedeth, sect. 19.
and first insisteth on that of chap. vi. where it is said that
they were uira^ <^h)Ti(r^iv7zg, once enlightened ; whence he
thus argues.
* Believers are said to be enlightened, and to be children
of light in the Lord; 2 Cor. iv. 6. Heb. x. 32. Luke xvi. 8.
Eph. V. 8. therefore they who here are said to be enlight-
ened were true believers.'
Ans. 1. 1 shall not insist upon the various intcrprcta-
EXPLAINED AND CONFIllMED. 301
tions of this place, and reading of the word ^wrto-S'tvrsc, very
many, and that not improbably, affirming, that their partici-
pation of the ordinance of baptism is here only intended by
it, for v.'hich exposition much might be offered were it
needful, or much conducing to our business in hand. Nor,
2. Shall I labour to manifest that persons may be en-
lightened, and yet never come to Christ savingly by faith,
to attain union with him and justification by him, a thing
Mr. G. will not deny himself, or if he should, it were a very
facile thing to convince him of his mistake, by a sole en-
treaty (if he would be pleased to give an account of his faith
in this business at our entreaty) of him to declare what he
intends by illumination, whence it would quickly appear,
how unsuitable it is to his own principles to deny, that it
may be in them, who yet never come to be, or at least by
virtue thereof may not be said to be true believers ; but this
only I shall add,
3. That Mr. G. doubtless knowing that this argument
(which withal the texts of Scripture, whereby he illustrates
it he borrows of the remonstrants) hath been again and
again excepted against, as illogical and unconcluding, and
inconsistent with the principles of them that use it, ought
not crudely again have imposed it upon his reader without
some attempt at least, to free it from the charge of imperti-
nency, weakness, and folly, wherewith it is burdened. Illu-
mination is ascribed to believers, illumination is ascribed
to these men, therefore, these persons are believers ; a lit-
tle consideration will recover to Mr. Goodwin's mind the
force of this argument, so far as that he will scarce use it
any more.
Sect. 20. He takes up another expression from chap. x.
12. That they are^said to receive liriyvojaiv Trig aXr/^tmc, 'the
acknowledgement of the truth ;' whence he argues in the
same manner and form, as he had newly done from the term
of illumination ; kTriyvioaig a\7]ddag ' is ascribed to believers,'
therefore, they are all so, to whom it is ascribed.
But he tells you in particular that, sect. 20. ' in the latter
of the said passages the persons spoken of are said to have
received l-Kiyvtjjaiv rCov d\i)6dag, i. e. ' the acknowledgement
of the truth ;' which expression, doth not signify the bare
notion of what the gospel teacheth, of which they are ca-
302 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE
pable who are the most professed enemies thereof, but such
a consenting and subjection thereunto, which worketh effec-
tually in men to a separating of themselves from sin and
sinners. This is the constant import of the phrase in the
Scriptures.'
Ans. All this may be granted, yet nothing hence con-
cluded, to evince the persons to whom it is ascribed to be
true believers ; men may be so wrought upon, and con-
vinced by the word and Spirit, sent forth to convince the
world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, as to acknow-
ledge the truth of the gospel, to profess subjection to the
gospel, and to yield to it so far as to separate themselves
from sin and sinners, in such a manner and to such a de-
gree (not dissembling but answering their convictions), as
to bless themselves oftentimes in their own condition, and
to obtain an esteem with the people of God to be such in-
deed, as they profess themselves to be, and yet come short
of that union and communion with the Lord Christ, which
all true believers are made partakers of. It is not of any
use or importance to examine the particular places men-
tioned by Mr. Goodwin, wherein as he supposeth the ex-
pression of the knowledge or acknowledgement of the truth
denotes that which is saving, and comprehendeth true faith,
unless he attempted to prove from them, that the word could
signify nothing else, or that a man might not be brought to
an acknowledgement of the truth, but that he must of ne-
cessity be a true believer ; neither of which he doth, or if he
did, could he possibly give any seeming probability to.
There may be a knowing of the things of the gospel in men,
and yet they may come short of the happiness of them that
do them ; there is a knowledge of Christ, that yet is barren
as to the fruit of holiness.
3. In the next place the persons queried about, arc said
to be ' sanctified by the blood of the covenant;' of this Mr.
Goodwin says, sect 21. i. e. 'By their sprinkling herewith,
to be sprinkled from such who refuse this sprinkling: as
likewise from the pollution's and defilements of the world. To
be sanctified when applied unto persons, is not found in any
other sense throughout the New Testament, unless it be
where persons bear the consideration of things ; 1 Cor. vii.
14. But of this signification of the word which we claim in
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 303
*
this place, instances are so frequent and obvious, that we
shall not need to mention any.'
j4ns. 1. If no more be intended in this expression, but what
Mr. Goodwin gives us in the exposition of it, viz. that they
are so sprinkled with it, as to be separate from them that re-
fuse this sprinkling (that is openly), as likewise from the pol-
lution and defilements of the world, we shall not need to con-
tend about it : for men may be so sprinkled, and have such an
efficacy of conviction come upon them by the preaching of
the cross, and blood-shedding of Christ, as to be separated
from those who professedly despise it, and the open publica-
tion of the word, and yet be far from having ' consciences
purged from dead works to serve the living God.' And,
2. That the term of ' sanctifying,' when applied to per-
sons, is not used in any other sense than what is by Mr.
Goodwin here expressed, is an assertion that will be ren-
dered useless until Mr. Goodwin be pleased to give it an edge
by explaining in what sense he here intends to play it. Of
the term ' sanctifying' there are, as hath been declared, two
more eminent and known significations. First, to separate
from common use, state or condition, to dedicate, consecrate,
and set apart to God by profession of his will, in a peculiar
manner is frequently so expressed. Secondly, really to pu-
rify, cleanse with spiritual purity, opposed to the defilement
of sin is denoted thereby. In the exposition given of the
place here used by Mr. G. he mentions both. Separation,
and that chiefly, as the nature of the sanctification whereof
he speaks, as also some kind of spiritual cleansing from sin :
but in what sense he precisely would have us to understand
him he doth not tell us.
I somewhat question, whether it be used in the Epistle to
the Hebrews in any other sense than the former, which was
the Temple sense of the word ; the apostle using many
terms of the old worship in their first signification; however,
that it is used in that sense, in the New Testament, appro-
priated to persons, without any such respect as that men-
tioned by Mr. G. is sufficiently evinced by that of our
Saviour, John xvii. 19. imlp cwtCov lyio ayia^o) l/javTov, ex-
pressing his dedicating and separating himself to his office ;
and more instances may be had, if we stood in any need
of them.
304 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERAXCE
3. That many are said to be sanctified and holy in the
latter sense, as it signifieth spiritual purity, in respect of
their profession of themselves so to be, and some men's es-
teem of them, who yet were never wholly and truly purged
from their sin, nor ever had received the Holy Spirit of pro-
mise, who alone is able to purge their hearts, dotli not now
want its demonstration, that work hath been somewhile
since performed. So that Mr. G. makes not any progress at
all, in the proof of what he has undertaken, viz. that they are
true believers in the sense of that denomination which we
assert, who in these places are described. For a close, Iv
i^ iijiaa^t}, is far more properly referred to Christ, than -to the
persons spoken of, and that sense the remonstrants them-
selves do not oppose.
That they are said, chap. vi. 4. ' to have tasted the hea-
venly gift' is urged in the next place, sect. 22. to prove them
true believers ; both the object and the act are here in ques-
tion, what is meant by the heavenly gift, and what by tast-
ing of it. I shall not look into the text beyond the peculiar
concernment of the cause in hand : somewhat might be
oflered for the farther clearing of one and other. At present
it sufficeth that be the heavenly gift what it will, the per-
sons of our contest, are said only to taste of it : which though
absolutely, and in itself, is not an extenuating expression,
but denotes a matter of high aggravation of the sin of apos-
tacy, in that they were admitted to some taste and relish of
the excellency and sweetness of the heavenly gift ; yet com-
paratively to their feeding on it, digesting it, growing there-
by, it clearly denotes their coming short of such a partici-
pation of it, who do but taste of it. That to taste, doth not
in the first genuine signification in things natural, signify to
eat and digest meat, so as to grow by it, I suppose needs no
proof; that in that sense it is used in the Scriptures, John
ii. 9. Matt, xxvii. 34. is by Mr. Goodwin confessed. This
he tells you is only when the taste or relish of things is de-
sired to be known : but that our Saviour tasted of the gall
and vinegar out of a desire to know the relish of it, he will
hardly persuade those who are accustomed to give never so
easy a belief to his assertions. By the ' heavenly gift' Mr. G.
in the first place intends Jesus Christ : now if by tasting-
eating and drinking of Christ be intended as is here pleaded
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 305
Christ himself will determine this strife, telling us that who-
soever eateth his flesh shall be saved ; John vi. 35. 49 — 51.
54 — 57. So that either to taste, is not to eat, or they that
taste cannot perish.
Three things are urged by Mr. Goodwin to give proof of
his interpretation of these words of the Holy Ghost. Saith he,
' 1. Whatsoever is meant by this heavenly gift, certain is
it that by tasting, is not meant any light or superficial im-
pression made upon the hearts or souls of men, through the
sense or apprehension of it, but an emphatical, inward and
effectuous relish and sense of the excellent and heavenly
sweetness and pleasantness of it, opposed to a bare specu-
lation or naked apprehension thereof. The reason hereof
is, because the tasting of this heavenly gift here spoken of,
is not mentioned by the apostle in a way of easing or exten-
uating the sin of those that should fall away from Christ;
but by way of aggravation and exaggeration of the heinous-
ness and unreasonableness thereof, and withal more fully to
declare and assert the equitableness of that severity in God>
which is here denounced against those, that shall sin the
great sin of apostacy here spoken of. It must needs be much
more unworthy and provoking in the sight of God, for a man
to turn his back upon and renounce those ways, that pro-
fession, wherein God hath come home to him, and answered
the joy of his heart abundantly, than it would be in case he
had only heard of great matters, and had his head filled, but
had really found and felt nothing with his heart and soul
truly excellent and glorious.
' 2. And besides, the very word itself, to taste, ordinarily
in Scripture, imports a real communion with, or participa-
tion and enjoyment (if the thing be good) of, that which was
said to be tasted. O taste, and see,^ saith David, that
the Lord is good. His intent doubtless was not to invite
men to a slight or superficial taste of the goodness of God,
but to a real, cordial, and thorough experiment and satisfac-
tory enjoyment of it. So when he that made the great in-
vitation in the parable, expressed himself thus to his ser-
vants :^ For I say unto you, that none of those who were
bidden shall taste of my supper. His meaning clearly was
that they should not partake of the sweetness, and benefit
» Psal. xxxiv. 8. Luke xiv. 24.
VOL. VII. X
306 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PEKSEVERANC E
with those who should accept of his invitation, and come
unto it. In like manner when Peter speaketh thus to his
Christian Jews,'' If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gra-
cious; his meaning (questionless) is not to press his exhorta-
tion directed unto them in the former verse upon a conside-
ration of any light or vanishing taste, such as hypocrites and
false-hearted Christians may have, of the graciousness of
the Lord, but of such a taste, wherein they had had a real,
inward, and sensible experiment thereof.
'3. And besides, according to the sense of our adver-
saries in the present debate, if the taste of the heavenly gift
we speak of should imply no more, but only a faint or weak
perception of the sweetness and glorious excellency of it, yet
even this may be sufficient to evince truth of grace and faith
in men. For their opinion is, that a man may be a true believer
with a grain of mustard-seed only, i. e. with a very slender
relish and taste of spiritual things ; yea, their sense is, that
in some cases of desertion, and under the guilt of some enor-
mous courses, they may have little or no taste of them at all.'
Ans. 1. To the first discourse, considering what hath been
already delivered, I shall only add, that although it be no
aggravation of the sin of apostacy, that they who fall into it,
have but ' tasted of the heavenly gift,' yet it is that they
have tasted of it: that taste of its relish, preciousness, and
sweetness, which they have obtained, whereby they are dis-
tinguished from them whose blindness and hardness keeps
them up to a total disrelish and contempt of it, is abundantly
enough to render their sin heinous and abominable. When
men by the preaching of the word, shall be startled in
their sins, troubled in their consciences, forced to seek
out for a remedy, and shall come so far as to have some
(though but a light) taste of the excellency of the gospel,
and the remedy provided for sinners in Jesus Christ, and
then through the strength of their lusts and corruptions,
shall cast it off, reject it, and spit out of their mouth, as it were,
all that of it whereby they found the least favour in it, no
creature under heaven can be guilty of more abominable
undervaluing of the Lord Christ, and the love of God in him,
than such persons. What degree of love, joy, repentance,
peace, faith, persons many times arrive unto, when with
f 1 Pet. ii. J.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 307
Herod they have heard the word gladly, and done many
things willingly, &c. hath been by others abundantly de-
monstrated. This sufficeth our present purpose, that they
do make such a progress in the ways of God, and find so
much excellency in the treasure of grace and mercy, which
he hath provided in Jesus Christ, and tenders in the gospel
that he cannot but look upon their apostacy and renuncia-
tion of him (whereby they proclaim to all the world as much
as in them lies, that there is not that real goodness, worth,
and excellency to be found in him, as some pretend) as the
highest scorn and contempt of him, and his love in Christ,
and revenges it accordingly.
2. To the second, which consists of instances collected
by the remonstrants to manifest the use of the word * tasting'
to be other than what we here confine it to. I say, 1. That
the word as it is applied to spirituals, being borrowed and
metaphorical, not in its analogy to be extended beyond
making trial, for our coming to some knowledge of a thing
in its nature, the use of it in one place cannot prescribe to
the sense of it in another, no more than any other metapho-
rical expression whatever ; but it must in the several places
of its residence, be interpreted according to the most pecu-
liar restriction that the matter treated of doth require. If
then, Mr. G . can prove that any thing in this place under
consideration enforces such a sense, all his other instances
are needless-; if he cannot, they are useless.
It might easily be manifested, and hath been done by
others already, that in all the places mentioned by Mr. Good-
win, the word is not expressly significant of any thorough,
solid eating and participation, or that which is said to be
tasted, as is pretended. But to manifest this, is not our con-
cernment; there being no reason in the world to enforce any
such sense as is contended for in the place under present
consideration.
3. To the third, wherein he argues with his predecessors
from our opinion concerning faith, a brief reply w ill suffice.
That a faint, weak perception and relish of heavenly things,
is sufiicient to make a man a believer, is so far from being
our opinion, that we utterly disclaim them from being be-
lievers to whom this is ascribed, if nothing else be added in
their description, from whence they may be so esteemed. It
X 2
308 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXTS' PERSEVERANCE
is true, faith is sometimes little, and weak in the exercise of
it, yea a man may be so overtaken with temptations, or so
clouded under desertions, as that it may not deport itself
with any such considerable vigour, as to be consolatory to
him in whom it is, or demonstrative of him unto others to be
what he is ; but we say that the weakest, lowest, meanes
measure and degree of this faith, is yet grounded and fixed
in the heart, where though it be not always alike lively and
active, yet it is always alive, and gives life. How far be-
lievers may fall into the guilt of enormous courses, has been
already manifested. The intendment of the expression, is
to disadvantage the persuasion he opposeth. We do not
grant that believers may fall into any enormities, but only
what God himself affirms they may, and yet not utterly be
cast out of his love and favour in Jesus Christ. Farther, the
the weakest faith, of which we affirm that it may be true and
saving, though it may have no great perception nor deep
taste of heavenly things for the present, yet hath it always
that of adherence to God in Christ, which is exceedingly
exalted above any such perception of heavenly things what-
ever, that may be had or obtained without it : so that from
the consideration of what hath been spoken, we may safely
conclude, that Mr. G. hath not been able to advance one step
in his intendment, to prove that the persons here described
are true believers.
I know no sufficient ground or reason to induce me to
any large consideration of the other two or three expressions
that remain, and that are insisted on by Mr. G. seeing it is
evident from their associates, which have been already ex-
amined, that there is none of them can speak one word to the
business in hand. I shall, therefore, discharge them from any
farther attendance, in the service they have been forced unto.
The next privilege insisted on, which to these persons is
ascribed, is, * that they are made partakers of the Holy Ghost.'
In men's participation of the Holy Ghost, either the gifts or
graces of the Holy Ghost are intended. The graces of the
Holy Ghost, are either more common and inchoative, or spe-
cial and completing of the work of conversion; that it is the
peculiar regenerating grace of God, that is intended in this
expression, of being ' made partakers of the Holy Ghost,' and
not the gifts of the Spirit, or those common graces of illumi-
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 309
iiation, unto which persons not truly converted, but only-
wrought upon by an effectual conviction in the preaching of
the word, may attain, Mr. G. is no way able to prove. And
there is also, this consideration rising up with strength and
power, against that interpretation ; viz. that those that are
so made partakers of the Spirit as to be regenerated, quick-
ened, sealed, comforted thereby, which are some of the pe-
culiar acts of his g-race, in and towards the souls of those that
believe, can never lose him, nor be deprived of him, as was
manifested before at large, being sealed and confirmed, not
only in the present enjoyment of the love and favour of God,
but also unto the full fruition of the glory, which is pro-
vided for them, and therefore cannot fall away, as these are
supposed to do. What there is in Mr. Goodwin's discourse,
on this passage, sect. 23, 24. to weaken in the least what is
usually answered, or farther to enforce his exposition of the
place, I am not able to apprehend, and shall therefore pro-
ceed with what remaineth.
All that follows in the place of the apostle under con-
test, is regulated by the word ' taste :' ' They have tasted of
the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come.^
What the sense and importance of that word is, hath been
already declared : neither can it be proved that the persons
here described, do so taste of the good word of God, as to
mix the promises of it with faith ; or of the powers of the
world to come, as to receive them in power in their hearts
by believing ; so that farther contest about these words seems
to be altogether needless.
How far men may proceed in the ways of God, what
progress they may make in amendment of life, what gifts
and common graces they may receive, what light and know-
ledge they may be endued withal, what kind of faith, joy, re-
pentance, sorrow, delight, love, they may have in and about
spiritual things ; what desire of mercy and heaven, what
useful gifts for the church's edification they may receive,
how far they may persuade their own souls, and upon what
grounds, thattheir condition God-ward is good and saving,
and beget an opinion in others that they are true believers,
and yet come short of union with Christ, building their
houses on the sand, &c. i§ the daily task of the preachers
of the gospel to manifest, in their pressing that exhortation
310 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
of the apostle unto their hearers, to examine and try them-
selves in the midst of their profession, whether Christ be
in them of a truth or no. I shall not now enter upon that
labour; the reader knows where to find enough in the wri-
tings of holy and learned men of this nation, to evince that
men may arrive at the utmost height of what is in this place
of the apostle by the Holy Ghost ascribed to the persons of
whom he speaks, and yet come short of the state of true
believers. Mr. G. indeed tells us, sect. 27.
' The premises relating to the two passages yet under
debate, considered, I am so far from questioning whether
the apostle speaks of true and sound believers in them, that
I verily judge, that he purposely sought out several of the
most emphatical and signal characters of believers ; yea,
such which are hardly, or rather not at all, to be found in
the ordinary sort of true believers, but only in those that
are most eminent amongst them, that so he and such, who
though sound, yet were weak in the faith, might fall away
and perish, but that even such also, who were lifted up nearer
unto heaven than their fellows, might through carelessness
and carnal security, dash themselves in pieces against the
same stone, and make shipwreck of their souls, as well as they.'
Ans. 1. The house built on the sand, may oftentimes be
built higher, have more fair parapets and battlements, v/in-
dows and ornaments, than that which is built upon the
rock ; yet all gifts and privileges, equal not one grace, in
respect of light, knowledge, gifts, and many manifestations
of the Spirit ; such who never come up to that faith which
gives real union and communion with Jesus Christ, may far
outgo those that do.
2. That there is any thing mentioned, or any characters
given of believers, much less such as are singular and not
common to all, Mr. G. hath not in any measure been able to
evince. There is not the meanest believer in the world but
he is a child of God, and heir of the promises, and brother
of the Lord Christ ; hath union with him, hath his living in
him, is quickened, justified, sanctified, hath Christ made to
him wisdom, &c. hath his righteousness in God, and his life
hid in him in Christ, is passed from death to life, brings
forth fruit, and is dear to God as the apple of his eye, ac-
cepted with him, approved of him, as his temple wherein
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 311
he delighteth to dwell. That any thing in this place men-
tioned and insisted on, any characters we have given of the
persons whom we have considered, do excel or equal, or
denote any thing in the same kind, with these and the like
excellencies of the meanest believers, will never be proved,
if we may judge of future successes from the issue of all
former attempts for that end and purpose.
And this is the issue of Mr. Goodwin's third testimony
produced to confirm the doctrine of the saints' apostacy,
but hypothetically, and under such a form of expression as
may not be argued from, nor of saints and true believers at
all. His fourth followeth.
His fourth testimony he produceth, and endeavours to ma-
nage for the advantage of his cause, sect. 31. in these words :
* The next Scripture testimony we shall produce and
briefly urge in the cause now under maintenance, is in the
same epistle with the former, and speaketh these words :
Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back,
my soul shall have no pleasure in him. Our English trans-
lators, out of good will, doubtless, to a bad cause, have al-
most defaced this testimony, by substituting any man for
the just man, for whereas they translate. But if any man
draw back, the original readeth, kol Uiv wTrotrrt/XrjTat, i. e.
and if, or but if, he, i. e, the just man who should live by
his faith, viz. if he continues in it, shall draw back. Beza
himself likewise before them, had stained the honour of his
faithfulness, with the same blot in his triinslation. But the
mind of the Holy Ghost in the words is plain and without
parable ; viz. that if the just man who lives, i. e. who at pre-
sent enjoys the favour of God, and thereby is supported in
all his trials, and should live always by his faith, if he con-
tinues in it, as Parens well glosseth, shall draw back, or
shall be withdrawn, viz. through fear or sloth, (as the word
properly signifieth ; see Acts xx. 27.) from his believing, my
soul shall have no pleasure in him, i. e. (according to the
import of the Hebraism) my soul shall hate or abhor him to
death ; as it is also expounded in the words immediately
following; But we are not of those who draw back to per-
dition, but, &c. From hence then evident it is, that such a
man who is a just or righteous man, and under promise
of living for ever by his faith (and therefore also, a true and
312 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXTs' PERSEVERANCE
sound believer), may draw back, or be withdrawn, to the
contracting of the hatred of God, and to destruction in the
end. The forlorn hope of evading, because the sentence is hy-
pothetical or conditional, not positive, hath been routed over
andover, yea and is abandoned by some of the great masters
themselves of that cause, unto the defence whereof it pre-
tendeth. And however, in this place, it would be most pre-
posterous. For if it should be supposed, that the just man
who is in a way and under a promise of living by his faith,
were in no danger or possibility of drawing back, and that
to the loss of the favour of God, and ruin of his soul, God
must be conceived to speak here at no better rate of wisdom
or understanding, than thus; The just shall live by his
faith : but if he shall do that, which is simply and utterly
impossible for him to do, my soul shall have no pleasure in
him. What savour of wisdom, yea or~of common sense,
is there in admonishing or cautioning men against such evils,
which there is no possibility for them to fall into, yea and
this known unto themselves ? Therefore this testimony, for
confirmation of the doctrine we maintain, is like a king upon
his throne, against whom there is no rising up.'
Ans. What small cause Mr. Goodwin hath to quarrel
with Bezaor other translators, and with how little advantage
to his cause this text is produced, shall out of hand be made
appear.
1 . The words as they cry are, 'O dl SiKotoc t/c iriaTewg ^T/o-tTot,
Koi lav vTTOCTTeiXriTai, ovk evSofcei 17 ^wx*'/ i"^" ^^ avTi^' r}fj.HQ Si
oi/K £<T/L(£V vTToaToArig elg cnrtoXnav, aWa TTicmojg elg 7repnroii]cnv
xpvxriQ- In the foregoing part of the chapter, tlie apostle had
treated of two sorts of persons : 1. Such as to forsake the as-
semblies of the saints, withdrew from the church and ordi-
nances of Christ; and so by degrees fell off with a total and
everlasting backsliding ; of these the apostle speaks, de-
scribing their ways and end, from ver. 25. unto ver.32. thence
forward. 2. He speaks to them and of them, who abode in their
persecutions, and under all their afflictions, to hold fast their
confidence, which he also farther exhorts them to, that by 'pa-
tient abiding in well-doing, they might receive the reward ;'
concerning these both, having told them of the unshaken
kingdom of Christ, that should be brought in, notwithstand-
ing the apostacy of many, of whose iniquity God would take
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 313
vengeance on ; he lays down that eminent promise of the
gospel, * the just by faith shall live,' words often used to ex-
press the state and condition of believers, of those who are
truly and unfeignedly so ; the Lord being faitb.ful in his
promise, ' the.ijustified person shall live,' or obtain life ever-
lasting. It is the promise of eternal life, that is here given
them, as that which they had not as yet received, but in
patience they were to wait to receive, after they had done the
whole will of God : that any of these should so draw back,
as that the Lord's soul should have no pleasure in them, is
directly contrary to the promise here made of their living.
The particle icai, in the next words, is plainly adversative
and exceptive, as it is very many times in the New Testa-
ment ; and that as to the persons of whom he is speaking :
at Zif^erai, tlie period is full, the description of the state of
the just by faith is completed, and in the next words, the
state of backsliders is entered upon; koX mv vTroorfiArjrat
referring to them, whom by their apostacy and subduction
of themselves from Christian assemblies, he had before de-
scribed ; there is an ellipsis in the words to be supplied,
but some indefinite term, to give them the sense intended :
this Beza and our translators have done by that excepted
against causelessly by Mr. G. for if a translator may make
the text speak significantly in the language whereunto he
translates it, the introduction of such supplements is al-
lowed him.
2. The following expression puts it out of all question,
that this was the intendment of the apostle ; for he expressly
makes mention, and that in reference to what was spoken
before of two sorts of people, to whom his former expressions
are respectively to be accommodated ; the words are i]idHg Se
ovK, as above. Mr. Goodwin, to make us believe that he took
notice of these words, hath this passage of them (as it is
also expounded in the words immediately following), but we
are not of them who draw back to perdition ; but, &.c. but
what, I pray, is expounded in these words; 'that drawers
back shall be destroyed V this is all he takes notice of in
them. Evidently the words are an application of the former
assertions unto several persons : there are, says he, some
who are ttjq viroaToXrjgi and some that arerij^ tt'kttewq: those,
saith he, who are r>)c virotrroXrig, they shall be destroyed ,
314 DOCTRINE OF THE SAlXTs' PERSEVERANCE
those who are tij^ tt'kttbwc, they shall live ; evidently and be-
yond all contradiction, assigning his former assertions of,
*the just shall live by faith/ and, 'if any man shall draw
back/ to several persons, by a distribution of their lot and
portions to them. In ver. 28. he lays dowi;^in thesis the
state and condition of believers and backslid rs : in ver. 29.
he makes application of the position he laid down to him-
self and them; 1. Negatively, that they were not of the
former sort of them that draw back, &c. 2. PositiTely, that
they were of the rest of them that believed : and those ex-
pressions, ver. 29. ouk tafx^v vTToaToXfjg, uXXu iriaTtiog, do un-
deniably affirm two sorts of. persons in both places to be
spoken of, and that lav viroaTeiXriTai can by no means be- re-
ferred to our diKmog, which would intermix them, whom
the apostle as to their present state and future condition,
held out in a contradistinction one to the other, unto the
end. All that ensues in Mr. Goodwin's discourse, being
built upon this sandy foundation, that it is the believer, of
whom God affirms that he shall live by faith, who is sup-
posed to be Trig viroaroXng, contrary to the express assertion
of the apostle, it needs no farther consideration, although
he is not able to manifest any strength in conclusion drawn
from suppositions of events, whicli may be possible in one
sense, and in another impossible.
But before we pass farther, may not this witness which
Mr. Goodwin hath attempted in vain to suborn to appear
and speak in his cause, be demanded what he can speak,
or what he knows of the truth of that which he is produced
to oppose. This then it confesseth and deniethnot, at first
word, that of professors there are two sorts; some are vtroaro-
\r]g, of such as do or may draw back unto perdition ; some
iriaTSwg, which believe to the saving of the soul, and that in
opposition to the others. Also, that those who withdraw
are not tticttewc, not true believers, nor ever were, notwith-
standing all their profession and what their gifts and attain-
ments, in and under their profession. So that the testimony
produced, keepeth still its place, and is ' as a king upon his
throne, against whom there is no rising up/ but yet speaks
quite contrary, clearly, evidently, distinctly, to what is pre-
tended ; both on the one hand and the other, is our thesis
undeniably confirmed in ihis place of the apostle. If all
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 315
those who fall away to perdition were never truly or really
of the faith, then those who are of the fa,ith cannot fall away ;
but they who fall away to perdition, were never truly nor
really of the faith, or true believers, ergo. The reason
of the consequent of the first proposition is evident; for
their not being of the faith is plainly included as the rea-
son of their apostacy, and their being of the faith, intimated
as that which would have preserved them from such de-
fection ; the minor is the apostles, we are not wTroo-roXfjCj
of them that draw back, but of them that believe, which
plainly distinguisheth them that draw back from believers.
Again, if true believers shall live, and continue to the saving
of their souls, in opposition to them that fall away to per-
dition, then they shall certainly persevere in their faith :
for these two are but one and the same ; but that true be-
lievers shall live, and believe to the saving of their souls, in
opposition to them that draw back, or subduct themselves
to perdition, is the assertion of the Holy Ghost ; ergo. I pre-
sume by this time Mr. Goodwin is plainly convinced that
indeed he had as good, yea and much better, for the advan-
tage of his cause in hand, have let his witness have abode in
quietness, and not entreated him so severely to denounce
judgment against that doctrine which he seeks by him to
confirm.
Sect. 32. the parable of the stony ground. Matt. xiii. 20,
21. comes next to consideration; the words chosen to be
insisted on are in the verses mentioned, ' but he that received
the seed into stony places, is he that heareth the word, and
anon with joy receiveth it, yet hath he not root in himself,
but dureth for awhile,' &c. That by the stony ground is meant
true believers, is that which Mr. Goodwin undertakes to prove :
but how in his whole discourse, J profess I perceive not : I
must take leave to profess that I cannot find any thing
looking like a proof or argument to evince it, from the be-
ginning to the end of this discourse, though something be
offered to take off the arguments that are used to prove it
to be otherwise. Doth Mr. Goodwin think that men will
easily believe that faith, which hath neither root, fruit, nor
continuance, to be true and saving faith ? doubtless they
might have very low apprehensions of saving faith, union
with Christ, justification, sanctification, adoption, &,c.
316 DOCTIUNE OF THE SAlNTs' PERSEVERAXCE
wherewith it is attended, who can once entertain any such
imaoination : that which is tendered to induce us to such a
persuasion, tuay briefly be considered.
Saith he, sect. 32. 'Now" those signified by the stony
ground, he expressly calleth irpoaKaipovg, i. e. persons who
continue for a time, or a season, i. e. (as Luke explaineth),
6i TTpbg Kuipbv TTKTTevovui, who believe for a season, so that
those who only for a time believe, and afterward make de-
fection from Christ, and from the gospel, are nevertheless
numbered and ranked by him amongst believers. The words
in Luke are very particular. They on the rock, are they
which when they hear, receive the word with joy; and those
have no root, which for awhile believe, and in time of
temptation fall away. From whence it appears, that the
hearers here described, are not compared to the rock or
stony ground, for the hardness of their hearts, forasmuch
as they are said to receive the word with joy, which argues
an ingenuity and teachableness of spirit in them ; and is
elsewhere (viz. Acts ii. 41.) taken knowledge of by the Holy
Ghost, as an index or sign of a true believer ; but for such a
property, disposition, or temper as this ; viz. not to give or
afford the word so received, a radication in their hearts and
souls, so intimous, serioug, and solid, which should be suffi-
cient to maintain their belief of it, and good affections to it,
against all such occurrences in the world, which may oppose,
or attempt either the one or the other.'
^Hs. 1. The first reason intimated, is, that they are said
to be irpocTKaipoi, a term given them plainly to distinguish
them from true believers ; men that make a profession for a
season, expressly opposed to them who receive the word in
good and honest hearts. If the word had denoted any ex-
cellency, any thing that was good in them, then there had
been some pretence to have insisted on it, to prove them
true believers ; but to demonstrate the truth of their faith
from their hypocrisy, and their excellencies from that which
expressly denotes their unworthiness, is a strange way of
arguing. They are persons, saith our Saviour, that make
profession for a little while, and then decay, not like them
who receive the word in good and honest souls ; therefore
saith Mr. G. they are true believers ; but,
2. In Luke they are said to believe for a season : Mr.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 317
Goodwin is not now to learn, how often in the Scripture they
are said to believe, who only profess the faith of the gospel,
though the root of the matter be not in them ; that of
John ii. 23 — 25. may suffice for undeniable instance ; or John
vi. 64. may farther expound it : their believing for a season,
is but the lifeless, worthless, fruitless profession for a season,
as their destruction from the good ground doth manifest.
But,
3. They are said to 'receive the word with joy, which ar-
gues ingenuity and tractableness of spirit in them :' no more
than in Herod, who heard the word gladly ; or in the Jews,
when the preaching of Ezekiel was pleasant or desirable to
thenl; or those described, Isa. Iviii. 2. 'who sought God
daily,' and delighted to know his ways, in the midst of their
abominable practices. From the similitude itself, he yet far-
ther attempts this uncouth assertion.
' But as the blade which springs from one and the same
kind of seed, as suppose from wheat or any other grain,
though sown in different, yea or contrary soils, is yet of the
same species or kind, the nature of the soil not changing the
specifical nature of the seed that is sown in it, and God
giving to every seed its own body, of what temper soever
the ground is, where it is sown : in like manner that faith,
which springs from the same seed of the gospel must needs
be of one and the same nature and kind, though this seed be
sown in the hearts of never so differing a constitution and
frame; the temper of the heart, be it what it will not
being able specifically to alter either the gospel or the na-
tural fruit issuing from it. And as a blade or ear of wheat,
though it be blasted before the harvest, is not hereby proved
not to have been a true blade or ear of wheat before it was
blasted, in like manner the withering or decay of any man's
faith, by what means or occasion soever, before his death,
doth not prove it to have been a false, counterfeit, or hypo-
critical faith, or a faith of any other kind than that which is
true, real, and permanent unto the end.'
Ans. 1. It hath been formerly observed, that similitudes
are not argumentative, beyond the extent of that particular
wherein their nature, as such, doth consist. The intend-
ment of Christ in this parable, is to manifest that many hear
the word in vain, and bring forth no fruit of it at all : of
318 DOCTUINE OF THE SAINTs' PEliSKVERANCE
these, one sort is compared to stony ground, that brings
forth a blade, but no fruit : no fruit, is no spirit, though
there be a blade, or no blade. The difference between the
one's receiving of seed, and the others manifested by our
Saviour in this parable, is in this, that one brings forth fruit,
and the other doth not : farther, the seed of wheat, or the
like brings forth its fruit in a natural way ; and, therefore,
whatever it brings forth, follows in some measure the nature
of the seed, but that seed of the gospel brings forth its fruit
in a moral way, and therefore may have effects of sundry na-
tures ; that which the seed of wheat brings forth is wheat,
but that which the gospel brings forth is not gospel but
faith, besides what the wheat brings forth, if it come not,
nor ever will to be wheat in the ear, it is but grass, and not
of the same nature and kind, with that which is wheat ac-
tually, though virtually and originally there be the nature of
wheat in the root, yet actually wheat is not in the blade, that
hath not, nor ever will have ear. If the seed of wheat be so
corrupted in the soil where it is sown, that it cannot bring-
forth fruit, that which it doth bring forth, whatever it be, is
of a different nature from that which is brought forth to per-
fection, by the seed of wheat in good ground. Again, faith
is brought forth by the seed of the gospel, when the promises
and exhortations of the gospel being preached unto men, do
prevail on them, to give assent unto the truth of it: that
every such effect wrought, is true justifying faith, giving
union with Jesus Christ, Mr. Goodwin cannot prove ; that
effects specifically different, may be brought forth by the
same seed of the gospel, seeing to some it is a savour of life
unto life, and to some a savour of death unto death, needs
not much proving. Some receive the word, and turn it into
wantonness, some are cast into the mould of it, and are trans-
lated into the same image; if the temper of the heart, as is
said, is not able specifically to alter the gospel : but that
there may not fruit of various kinds be born in the heart
that assents to it, that receives it in the upper crust and
skin of it, is the question. Neither is it a blade occasionally
withering before the harvest, but a slight receiving of the
seed, so as that it can never bring forth fruit that is inti-
mated. In sum, tliis whole discourse is a great piece of so-
phistry, in comparing natural and moral causes in the pro-
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 319
ducing of their effects, a thing not intended in the parable,
and whereabout he that will busy himself, ' jungat vulpes, et
mulgeathircos.' This is that which our Saviour teacheth us
in the similitude of seed sown in the stony ground. The
word is preached unto some men, who are affected with it
for a season, assent unto it, but not coming up to a cordial
close with it, after awhile wither away : and such as these,
we say, were never true believers : a small matter will serve
to make a man a true believer, if these are such. What ten-
dency this doctrine may have to lull men asleep in security,
when Christ is not in them of a truth, may easily appear
and be judged : if men who are distinguished from other be-
lievers, by such signal differences as these here are, may
yet pass for true believers, justified, sanctified, adopted
ones, ' solvi mortales curas,' the way to heaven is laid open
to thousands, who I fear will never come to the end of the
journey.
What remains of Mr. G.'s discourse on this text, is spent
in answering some objections which are made against his
interpretation of the place ; it grows now late, and this task
grows so heavy on my hand, that I cannot satisfy myself
in the repetition of any thing spoken before, or delivered,
which would necessarily enforce a particular consideration
of what Mr. G. here insists on, let him at his leisure an-
swer this one argument, and I shall trouble him no farther
in this matter.
That faith which hath neither root nor fruit, neither sound
heart, nor good life, that by and by, readily and easily yields
upon temptation to a total defection, is not true, saving, jus-
tifying faith. The root of faith, taken spiritually, is the
habit of it in the heart ; a spiritual living habit, which if it
reside not in the heart, all assent whatever wants the nature
of faith, true and saving; the fruits of faith are good works
and new obedience ; that faith which hath not works, James
tells you, is dead ; dead and living faith doubtless differ
specifically. Again, faith purifieth the heart, and when a
heart is wholly polluted, corrupted, naught and false, there
dwells no faith in that heart; it is impossible it should be
in a heart, and not at least radically and fundamentally pu-
rify it : farther, Mr. Goodwin hath told us, that true believers
are so fortified against apostacy, that they are in only a pos-
320 DOCTRINE OF THE SAJNTS PERSEVERANCE
sibility, in no probability, or great danger of" total apos-
tacy : and, therefore, they who presently and readily fall
away, cannot be of those, who are scarce in any danger of so
doing, upon any account whatever: but that the faith here
mentioned, hath neither root nor fruit, good heart to dwell
in, nor good life attending it, but instantly upon trial aiid
temptation, vanisheth to nothing, we are taught in the text
itself: therefore, the faith here mentioned, is not true nor
saving faith. That it hath no root is expressly affirmed, ver.
21. and all the rest of the qualities mentioned are evidenced
from the opposition wherein they who are these believers,
are set unto true believers, they receive the word in ' good
and honest hearts/ they bring * forth fruit with patience,'
they ' endure in time of trial ;' like the house built on the
rock, when the house built on the sand falls to the ground.
One word more with this witness before we part : they
who receive the word in good and honest hearts, and keep
it, do bring forth fruit with patience, and fall not away under
temptation. So saith the testimony; but all true believers
receive the word in good and honest hearts : ergo. Which
is the voice of Mr. Goodwin's fourth witness in this cause.
The 2 Pet. ii. 18 — 22. is forced to bring up the rear of
the testimonies by Mr. G. produced to convince the world of
the truth and righteousness of his doctrine of the saints
apostacy, ending his whole discourse in the mire. Observa-
tions from the text or context, from the words themselves,
or the coherence to educe his conclusion from, he insists
not on. Many excellent words we have concerning the clear-
ness and evidence of this testimony, and the impossibility
of avoiding what hence he concludes, w« want not, but we
have been too often inured to such a way of proceeding to
be now moved at it, or troubled about it, were the waters
deep, they would not make such a noise. The state and
condition of men here described by the apostle, is so justly
delineated to the eye, by the practice of men in the world
to whom the gospel is preached, that I do not a little won-
der how any man exercised in the ministry, should once sur-
mise that they are true believers of whom he here treats ;
taking the words in the sense wherein they are commonly
received, and in the utmost extent, who sees them not daily
exemplified in and upon them, who are yet far enough from
EXPLAIN^ED AND COXFIRMED. 321
the faith of God's elect. By the dispensation of the word,
especially when managed by a skilful master of assemblies,
men are every day so brought under the power of their con-
victions, and the light communicated to them, as to ackwow-
ledge the truth and power of the word, and in obedience,
thereunto to leave off, avoid, and abhor the ways and courses
wherein the men of the world, either not hearing the word
at all, or not so wrought upon by it, do pollute themselves
and wallow with all manner of sensuality ; and yet are not
changed in their natures, so as to become new creatures, but
continue indeed, and in the sight of God, dogs and swine,
oftentimes returning to their vomit and mire, though some
of them hold out in the professions to the end ; and these
are they, whom commonly our divines have deciphered un-
der the name of formalists, having a ' form of godliness but
denying the power of it,' who are here all at once by Mr.
Goodwin interested in Christ, and ' the inheritance of the
saints in light.' To make good his enterprise he argues from
the remonstrants, sect. 40. p. 297.
' 1. If the said expressions import nothing, but what hy-
pocrites, and that' in sensucomposito,' i. e. whilst hypocrites,
are capable of, then may those be hypocrites, who are sepa-
rated from men that live in error, and from the pollutions of
the world, and that through the knowledge of Jesys Christ:
and on the other hand those may be saints, and sound be-
lievers, who wallow in all manner of filthiness, and defile
themselves daily with the pollutions of the world. This
consequence, according to the principles and known tenets
of our adversaries, is legitimate and true, inasmuch as they
hold that true believers may fall so foul and so far, that the
church, according to Christ's institution may be constrained
to testify that they cannot bear them in their outward com-
munion, and that they shall have no part in the kingdom of
Christ, except they repent, &c. But whether this be whole-
some and sound divinity or no, to teach that they who are
separate from sinners, and live holily and blamelessly in this
present world, and this by means of the knowledge of Jesus
Christ, may be hypocrites and children of perdition, and they
on the other hand who are companions of thieves, mur-
derers, adulterers, &c. saints and sound believers, I leave to
VOL. VII. Y
322 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PEllSEVER A XCE
men whose judgments are not turned upside down with pre-
judice to determine.'
1. Sundry things might be observed from the text, to
render this discourse altogether useless, as to the end for
which itis produced : as 1. That sundry copies, ver. 13. in-
stead of o\u)g read oXiyov, who almost, or in a little way or
measure, so escaped as is said. 2. That it is not said, that
those who are so escaped may apostatize ; it is said, indeed,
that the false prophets and teachers, deXea^ovaiv do lay baits
for them, as the fisher doth for the fish that he would take,
by proposing unto them a liberty, as to all manner of impu-
rity and uncleanness, but that in so doing, they prevail over
them is not affirmed. 3. The conditional expression, ver.
20. may be used in reference to the false prophets, and not
to them that are said to ' escape the pollutions of the world;'
and if to them, that nothing can be argued from thence, hath
plentifully upon .several occasions been already demon-
strated: but to suffer Mr. B. to leap over all these blots in his
entrance, and to take the words in his own sense and con-
nexion ; I say,
1. In what large and improper sense, such persons as we
treat of, are termed hypocrites, hatli been declared. Those
who pretend to be godward, what they knew themselves not
to be, making a pretence of religion, to colour and counte-
nance themin vice and vicious practises, or sensual courses,
wherein they allow and bless themselves, we intend not : but
such as in some sincerity, under the enjoyment and improve-
ment of gifts and privileges, do or may walk conscientiously,
as Paul before his conversion, and yet are not unitedto Christ.
2. Of these we say, that they may so escape, &c. but
that sound believers, may wallow in all manner of sinfulness,
and defile themselves with all manner of pollutions, we say
not : nor will any instance given amount to the height and
intendment of those expressions, they being all alleviated
by sundry considerations, necessarily to be taken in with
that of their sinning.
3. If we may compare the worst of a saint, with the best
of a formal professor, and make an estimate of the states
and conditions of them both, we may cast the ballance on
the wrong side.
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED. 323
4. We do say that Simon Peter was a believer when he
denied Christ, and Simon Magus a hypocrite, and 'in the
bond of iniquity, when it was said he believed. We do say,
that a man may be alive notwithstanding many wounds and
much filth upon him, and a man may be dead, without either
the one or the other, in that eminently visible manner. He
adds,
' 2. The'persons here spoken of, are said to have, ovrwg,
truly and really escaped from those, who live in error.
Doubtless a hypocrite cannot be said, truly or really, but in
shew or appearance at most, to have made such an escape
(I mean from men who live in error), considering that for
matter of reality and truth, remaining in hypocrisy, he lives
in one of the greatest and foulest errors that is.'
The whole force of this second exception, lies upon the
ambiguity of the term ' hypocrite ;' though such as pretend
religion, and the worship of God, to be a colour and pretext
for the free and uncontroled practising of vile abomina-
tions, may not be said so to escape it, yet such as these we
have before described, with their convictions, light, gifts,
duties, good conscience, &c. may truly and really escape
from them, and their ways who pollute themselves with the
errors of idolatry, false-worship, superstition, and the pollu-
tions of practices against the light of nature, and their own
convictions. It is added that,
* 3. A hypocrite, whose foot is already in the snare of
death, cannot upon any tolerable account, either of reason
or common sense, be said to be allured (i. e. by allurements
to be deceived) or overcome by the pollutions of the world,
no more than a fish that is already in the net, or fast upon
the hook, can be said to be allured by a bait held to her.'
Arts. But he that hath been so far prevailed upon by the
preaching of the word, as to relinquish and renounce the
practices of uncleanness; wherein he sometime wallowed
and rolled himself, may be prevailed upon and overcome by
temptations, to backslide into the same abominable prac-
tices, wherein he was formerly engaged, deserting that way
and course of attending to the word, and yielding obedience
thereunto, which he had entertained, that in its own nature
tended to a better end.
y 2
324 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE.
4. Says he, ' Hypocrites are nowhere said, neither can
they w'tih. any congruity to Scripture phrase, be said to have
escaped the pollutions of the world through the acknowledg-
ment (for so the word tTrtyvwcrif,- should be translated) of Jesus
Christ, the acknowledgment of the truth, and so of Christ
and of God, constantly in the Scriptures, importing a sound
and saving work of conversion : as we lately observed in this
chap. sect. 20.'
Ans. It sufficeth that the thing itself intimated, is suffi-
ciently revealed in the Scriptures, and confirmed by the ex-
amples of all those who have acknowledged the truth of the
word to the putting on a form of godliness, though they
come not up to the power or saving practice of it ; and truly
I cannot but admit, that any one who hath had never so lit-
tle experience in the work of the ministry, or made never so
little observation of religion, should once suppose that all
such persons must needs be accounted true believers, re-
generate, &c.
Mr. Goodwin shuts up this chapter with a declaration
concerning the usefulness of cautions and admonitions given
to believers, about backsliding, upon a supposition of an in-
fallible - promise of God for their perseverance. I presume
the reader is weary as well as myself, and having in the last
chapter, heard him out to the full, what he is able to say to
this common-place of opposition to the doctrine we have
thus far asserted, and offered those considerations of the
ways of God's dealings with believers, to preserve them in
the course of their obedience, and walking with him which
I hope, through the mercy and goodness of God, may be sa-
tisfactory to them that shall weigh them, I shall not burden
him with the repetition of any thing already delivered, nor
do judge it needful for to add any thing more.
OF THE
MORTIFICATION OF SIN
IN
BELIEVERS :
THE
NECESSITY, NATURE, AND MEANS OF IT:
WITH A RESOLUTION OF
SUNDRY CASES OF CONSCIENCE,
THEREUNTO BELONGING.
PREFACE.
Christiax Readeu,
I SH7\.LL in a few words acquaint thee with the rea-
sons that obtained my consent to the publishing of the
ensuing discourse. The consideration of the present
state and condition of the generality of professors, the
visible evidences of the frame of their hearts and
spirits, manifesting a great disability of dealing with
the temptations, wherewith from the peace they have
in the world, and the divisions that they have among
themselves, they are encompassed, holds the chief place
amongst them. This I am assured is of so great im-
portance, that if hereby I only occasion others to press
more effectually on the consciences of men, the work
of considering their ways, and to give more clear di-
rection for the compassing of the end proposed, I shall
well esteem of my lot in this undertaking. This was
seconded by an observation of some men's dangerous
mistakes, who of late days have taken upon them to
give directions for the mortification of sin, who being
unacquainted with the mystery of the gospel, and the
efficacy of the death of Christ, have anew imposed the
yoke of a self-wrought-out mortification on the necks
of their disciples, which neither they, nor their fore-
fathers were ever able to bear. A mortification they
cry up and press, suitable to that of the gospel, neither
in respect of nature, subject, causes, means, nor effects ;
CCCXXVlll PREFACE.
which constantly produces the deplorable issues of su-
perstition, self-righteousness, and anxiety of conscience,
in them who take up the burden which is so bound
for them.
What is here proposed in weakness, I humbly hope
will answer the spirit and letter of the gospel, with the
experiences of them, who know what it is to walk with
God, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace.
So that if not this, yet certainly something of this kind is
very necessary at this season, for the promotion and
furtherance of this work of gospel mortification in the
hearts of believers, and their direction in paths safe,
and wherein they may find rest to their souls. Some-
thing I have to add, as to what in particular relates
unto myself. Having preached on this subject unto
some comfortable success, through the grace of him
that administereth seed to the sower, I was pressed by
sundry persons, in whose hearts are the ways of God,
thus to publish what I had delivered, with such ad-
ditions and alterations, as I should judge necessary.
Under the inducement of their desires, I called to re-
membrance the debt, wherein I have now for some
years stood engaged unto sundry noble and worthy
Christian friends, as to a treatise of communion with God,
some while since promised to them ;* and thereon ap-
prehended, that if 1 could not hereby compound for the
greater debt, yet I might possibly tender them this dis-
course of variance with themselves, as interest for their
forbearance of that of peace and communion with God.
Besides, I considered that I had been providentially
engaged in the public debate of sundry controversies
* Since the first edition of IhU treatise, that other also is published.
PREFACE. CCCXXIX
in religion, which might seem to claim something in
another kind, of more general use, as a fruit of choice,
not necessity : on these and the like accounts, is this
short discourse brought forth to public view, and now
presented unto thee. I hope I may own in sincerity,
that my heart's desire unto God, and the chief design
of my life in the station wherein the good providence
of God hath placed me, are, that mortification and uni-
versal holiness may be promoted in my own, and in
the hearts and ways of others, to the glory of God, that
so the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
may be adorned in all things ; for the compassing of
which end, if this little discourse (of the publishing
whereof this is the sum of the account I shall give) may
in any thing be useful to the least of the saints, it will
be looked on as a return of the weak prayers, where-
with it is attended by its unworthy author,
JOHN OWEN.
OF THE
MORTIFICATION OF 8IN
IN
BELIEVERS, &c.
CHAP. I.
Thefoundationof the whole ensuing discourse laid in Rom. viii. 13, The
■words of the apostle opened. The certain connexion between true morti-
fication and salvation. Mortification the work of believers. The Spirit
the principle efficient cause of it. What meant by the body in the words
of the apostle. What by the deeds of the body. Life in what sense pro-
mised to this duty.
That what I have of direction to contribute to the carrying
on of the work of mortification in believers, may receive
order and perspicuity, I shall lay the foundation of it in
those words of the apostle^ Rom. viii. 13. *If ye by the
Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live ;' and
reduce the whole to an improvement of the great evangelical
truth and mystery contained in them.
The apostle having made a recapitulation of his doctrine
of justification by faith, and the blessed estate and condition
of them, who are made by grace partakers thereof, ver. 1 —
3. of this chapter, proceeds to improve it to the holiness and
consolation of believers.
Among his arguments and motives unto holiness,' the
verse mentioned containeth one, from the contrary events
and effects of holiness and sin. ' If ye live after the flesh, ye
shall die.' What it is to ' live after the flesh,' and what it is
to * die,' that being not my present aim and business, I shall
no otherwise explain, than as they will fall in with the sense
of the latter words of the verse, as before proposed.
In the words peculiarly designed for the foundation of
the ensuing discourse, there is.
First, A duty prescribed ; ' mortify the deds of the body.'
Secondly, The persons are denoted to whom it is pre-
scribed ; ' ye, if ye mortify.'
332 MORTIFICATION OF SIX
Thirdly, There is in them a promise annexed to that
duty; ' ye shall live.'
Fourthly, The cause or means of the performance of
this duty, the Spirit; *if ye through the Spirit,'
Fifthly, The conditionality of the whole proposition,
wherein duty, means, and promise are contained ; * if ye,' 8cc.
1. The first thing occurring in the words as they lie
in the entire proposition, is the conditional note, el St, * but if.'
Conditionals in such propositions may denote two things,
(1.) The uncertainty of the event or thing promised, in
respect of them to whom the duty is prescribed. And this
takes place where the condition is absolutely necessary unto
the issue, and depends not itself on any determinate cause,
known to him to whom it is prescribed. So we say, 'if we
live, we will do such a thing.' This cannot be the intend-
ment of the conditional expression in this place. Of the
persons to whom these words are spoken, it is said, ver. 1. of
the same chapter, 'There is no condemnation to them.'
(2.) The certainty of the coherence and connexion that
is between the things spoken of. As we say to a sick man,
If you will take such a potion, or use such a remedy, you
will be well. The thing we solely intend to express, is the
certainty of the connexion that is between the potion or re-
medy, and health. And this is the use of it here. The cer-
tain connexion that is between the mortifying of the deeds
of the body, and living, is intimated in this conditional
particle.
Now the connexion and coherence of things being ma-
nifold, as of cause and effect, of way and means, and the
end ; this between mortification and life, is not of cause and
effect properly and strictly ; ' For eternal life is the gift of
God through Jesus Christ;' Rom. vi. 23. but of means and
end. God hath appointed this means for the attaining that
end, which he hath freely promised. Means, though ne-
cessary, have a fair subordination to an end of free promise.
A gift and procuring cause in him to whom it is given, are
inconsistent. The intendment then of this proposition, as
conditional, is, that there is a certain infallible connexion
and coherence between true mortification and eternal life :
if you use this means, you shall obtain that end ; if you do
mortify, you shall live. And herein lies the main motive
unto, and enforcement of the duty prescribed.
IX BELIEVERS. 333
2. The next thing we meet withal in the words is, the
persons to whom this duty is prescribed ; and that is ex-
pressed in the word 'ye,' in the original included in the
verb, ^avciTovTe, ' if ye mortify ;' that is, ye believers ; ye to
whom * there is no condemnation,' ver. 1. ye that are * not in
the flesh, butin the Spirit,' ver. 5. who are 'quickened by
the Spirit of Christ,' ver. 10, 11. to you is this duty pre-
scribed. The pressing of this duty immediately on any
other is a notable fruit of that superstition and self-righte-
ousness that the world is full of; the great work and design
of devout men ignorant of the gospel; Rom. x. 3, 4. John
XV. 5, Now, this description of the persons, in conjunction
with the prescription of the duty, is the main foundation of
the ensuing discourse, as it lies in this thesis or proposition.
The choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the
condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their busi-
ness, all their days, to mortify the indwelling power of sin.
3. The principal efficient cause of the performance of
this duty, is the Spirit; d dlTrvev/naTi, 'if by the Spirit.'
The Spirit here is the Spirit mentioned, ver. 11. the Spirit
of Christ, the Spirit of God, that ' dwells in us,' ver. 9. that
' quickens us,* ver. 11. ' the Holy Ghost,' ver. 14. the ' Spirit
of adoption,' ver. 15. the Spirit 'that maketh intercession
for us,' ver. 26. All other ways of mortification are vain, all
helps leave us helpless, it must be done by the Spirit. Men,
as the apostle? intimates, Rom. ix. 30 — 32. may attempt
this work on "other principles, by means and advantages
administered on other accounts, as they always have done,
and do ; but, saith he, this is the work of the Spirit, by him
alone is it to be wrought, and by no other power is it to
be brought about. Mortification from a self-strength, car-
ried on by ways of self-invention, unto the end of a self-
righteousness, is the soul and substance of all false religion
in the world. And this is a second principle of my en-
suing discourse.
4. The duty itself; ' Mortify the deeds of the body,' is
nextly to be remarked.
Three things are here to be inquired into. (1.) What is
meant by the body. (2.) What by the deeds of the body.
(3.) What by mortifying of them.
(1.) The body in the close of the verse, is the same with
334 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
the flesh in the beginning. ' If ye live after the flesh, ye
shall die/ but if ye * mortify the deeds of the body/ that is,
of the flesh. It is that which the apostle hath all along dis-
coursed of, under the name of the flesh, which is evident
from the prosecution of the antithesis between the Spirit and
the flesh, before and after. The body then here is taken for
that corruption and depravity of our natures, whereof the
body in a great part, is the seat and instrument : the very
members of the body being made servants unto unrighteous-
ness thereby ; Rom. vi. 19. It is indwelling sin, the cor-
rupted flesh or lust, that is intended. Many reasons might
be given of this metonymical expression, that I shall not
now insist on. The body here is the same with TraXmbg
av^pwTTog, and aCofxa ttiq afxapTiag, the * old man,' and the
'body of sin/ Rom. vi. 6. or it may synecdochically express
the whole person considered as corrupted, and the seat of
lusts, and distempered affections.
(2.) The deeds of the body ; the word is vpa^Eig, which
indeed denoteth the outward actions chiefly. The works of
the flesh, as they are called, to. epya Tijg aapKoc ; Gal. v. 19.
which are there said to be manifest; and are enumerated.
Now, though the outward deeds are here only expressed,
yet the inward and next causes are chiefly intended, the 'axe
is to be laid to the root of the tree / the deeds of the flesh
are to be mortified in their causes, from whence they spring;
the apostle calls them deeds, as that which every lust tends
unto; though it do but conceive and prove abortive, it aims
to bring forth a perfect sin.
Havino- both in the seventh, and the beg-innins of this
chapter, treated of indwelling lust and sin, as the fountain
and principle of all sinful actions, he here mentions its de-
struction under the name of the effects, which it doth pro-
duce : TTpa^HQ Tov OMfxaroQ, are as much as (ppwvrjfia Tijg aapKog,
Rom. viii. 6. the ' wisdom of the flesh,' by a metonymy of
the same nature with the former ; or as the 7ra3'/j/uara, and
^iiri^vixiai, the 'passions and lusts of the flesh ;' Gal. v. 24.
whence the deeds and fruits of it do arise ; and in this sense
is the body used, ver. 10. ' The body is dead because of sin.'
(3.) To mortify ; d ^avaTovn, ' if ye put to death ;' a me-
taphorical expression, taken from the putting of any living
thing to death. To kill a man, or any other living thing, is
IN BELIEVERS. 335
to take away the principle of all his strength, vigour, and
power, so that he cannot act or exert, or put forth any proper
actings of his own ; so it is in this case. Indwelling sin is
compared to a person, a living person, called ' the old man,'
with his faculties, and properties, his wisdom, craft, subtlety,
strength; this, says the apostle, must be killed, put to death,
mortified, that is, have its power, life, vigour, and strength, to
produce its effects, taken away by the Spirit. It is indeed,
meritoriously, and by way of example, utterly mortified and
slain by the cross of Christ ; and the old man is thence said
to be 'crucified with Christ;' Rom. vi. 6. and 'ourselves to
be dead with him;' ver. 8. and really initially in regeneration,
Rom. vi. 3 — 5. when a principle contrary to it, and destruc-
tive of it. Gal. V. 17. is planted in our hearts ; but the whole
work is by degrees to be carried on towards perfection all
our days. Of this more- in the process of our discourse.
The intendment of the apostle in this prescription of the
duty mentioned, is, that the mortification of indwelling sin,
remaining in our mortal bodies, that it may not have life and
power to bring forth the works or deeds of the flesh, is the
constant duty of believers.
5. The promise unto this duty is life ; * Ye shall live.' The
life promised, is opposed to the death threatened in the
clause foregoing. * If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die ;'
which the same apostle expresseth, * Ye shall of the flesh
reap corruption;' Gal. vi. 8. or destruction from God. Now,
perhaps the word may not only intend eternal life, but also
the spiritual life in Christ, which here we have, not as to the
essence and being of it, which is already enjoined by be-
lievers, but as to the joy, comfort, and vigour of it; as the
apostle says in another case, 'Now I live if ye stand fast;'
1 Thess. iii. 8. Now my life will do me good ; I shall have
joy and comfort with my life ; ye shall live, lead a good,
vigorous, comfortable, spiritual life whilst you are here, and
obtain eternal life hereafter.
Supposing what was said before of the connexion be-
tween mortification and eternal life, as of means and end, I
shall add only, as a second motive to the duty prescribed,
that.
The vigour, and power, and comfort, of our spiritual life,
depends on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh.
336 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
CHAP. II.
The piiiicipal asse>ti<m conccrnhiy the necessity of mortification proposed to
confirmation, 31ortifivation the duty of the best believers; Col. iii, 5.
1 Cor. ix. 27. Indwel/iny sin always abides ; no perfection in this life ;
Phil. iii. 12. 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 2 Pet. iii. 18. Gal, v. 17, ^r. The activity
of abiding sin in believers; nom. vii. 23. James iv. 5. Hcb. xii. 1. Its
fruitfxdness and tendency. Every lust aims at the height in its hind. The
Spirit and new nature given to contend against indwelling sin ; Gal. v. 17.
2 Pet. i. 4, 5. Rom. vii. 23. The fearful issue of the neglect of mortifi-
cation; Rev. iii. 2. Heb. iii. 13. The first general principle of the whole
discourse hence confirmed. Want of this duty lamented.
Having laid this foundation, a brief confirmation of the
forementioned principal deductions will lead me to what
I chiefly intend.
I. That the choicest believers, who are assuredly freed
from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their
business all their days to mortify the indwelling powerof sin.
So the apostle, Col. iii. 5. * Mortify therefore your mem-
bers, which are upon earth.' Whom speaks he to ? Such as
were 'risen with Christ,' ver. 1. such as were 'dead with him,'
ver.3. such as whose life Christ was, and who should 'appear
with him in glory ;' ver. 4. Do you mortify, do you make
it your daily work, be always at it whilst you live ; cease
not a day from this work, be killing sin, or it will be killing
you; your being dead with Christ virtually, your being
quickened with him, will nort excuse you from this work.
And our Saviour tells us, how his Father deals with every
branch in him that beareth fruit; every true and living
branch, ' He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit ;'
John XV. 2. He prunes it, and that not for a day or two, but
whilst it is a branch in this world. And the apostle tells
you what was his practice, 1 Cor. ix. 27. ' I keep under my
body, and bring it into subjection.' I do it, saith he, daily,
it is the work of my life, I omit it not, this is ray business.
And if this were the work and business of Paul who was so
incomparably exalted in grace, revelations, enjoyments, pri-
vileges, consolations, above the ordinary measure of believers ;
where may we possibly bottom an exemption from this work
and duty whilst we are in this world. Some brief account of
the reasons hereof may be given.
IN BELIEVERS. 337
1. Indwelling sin always abides, whilst we are in this
world, therefore it is always to be mortified. The vain, fool-
ish, and ignorant disputes of men about perfect keeping the
commands of God, of perfection in this life, of being wholly
and perfectly dead to sin, 1 meddle not now with. It is
more than probable, that the men of those abominations
never knew what belonged to the keeping of any one of
God's commands, and are so much below perfection of de-
grees, that they never attained to a perfection of parts in
obedience, or universal obedience in sincerity. And there-
fore, many in our days who have talked of perfection, have
been, wiser, and have affirmed it to consist in knowing no
difference between good and evil. Not that they are perfect
in the things we call good, but that all is alike to them, and
the height of wickedness is their perfection. Others who
have found out a new way to it, by denying original in-
dwelling sin, and a tempering the spirituality of the law of
God, unto men's carnal hearts ; as they have sufficiently dis-
covered themselves to be ignorant of the life of Christ and
the power of it in believers ; so they have invented a new
righteousness that the gospel knows not of, being vainly
puffed up by their fleshly minds. For us, who dare not
be wise above what is written, nor boast by other men's
lines of what God hath not done for us, we say, that in-
dwelling sin lives in us in some measure and degree whilst
we are in this world. We dare not speak as ' though we had
already attained, or were already perfect ;' Phil. iii. 12. our
inward man is to be renewed day by day, whilst here we
live, 2 Cor. iv. 16. and according to the renovations of th.e
new, are the breaches and decays of the old. Whilst we are
here, we 'know but in part;' 1 Cor. xiii. 12. having a re-
maining darkness to be gradually removed by our ' growth
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ;' 2 Pet. iii. 18.
And * the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, so that we cannot
do the things that we would;' Gal. v. 17. and are therefore
defective in our obedience, as well as in our light; 1 John
i. 8. We have a ' body of death;' Rom. vii. 24. from
whence we are not delivered, but by the death of our bodies,
Phil. iii. 21.- Now it being our duty to mortify, to be killing
of sin whilst it is in us, we must be at work. He that is ap-
pointed to kill an enemy, if he leave striking before the other
VOL. VII. z
338 MORTIFICATION OF SIX
ceases living, doth but half his work ; Gal. vi. 9. Heb. xii. 1
2Cor. vii. 1.
2. Sin doth not only still abide in us, but is still acting,
still labouring to bring forth the deeds of the flesh; when
sin lets us alone, we may let sin alone : but as sin is never
less quiet, than when it seems to be most quiet ; and its
waters are for the most part deep, when they are still ; so
ought our contrivances against it to be vigorous at all times,
and in all conditions, even where there is least suspicibn.
Sin doth not only abide in us, but the law of the ' members
is still rebelling against the law of the mind ;' Rom. vii. 23.
and the spirit that dwells in us lusteth to envy; James iv. 5.
It is always in continual work, ' the flesh lusteth against the
Spirit;' Gal. v. 17. lust is still tempting and conceiving sin,
James i. 14. in every moral action, it is always either in-
dining to evil, or hindering from that which is good, or dis-
framing the spirit from communion with God, it inclines to
evil; 'The evil that I would not, that I do/ saith the apostle,
Rom. vii. 19. whence is that? why, 'because in me, that is,
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing ;' and it hinders from
good; 'the good that I would do, that I do not;' ver. 19.
upon the same account, either I do it not, or not as I should ;
all my holy things being defiled by this sin. ' The flesh lust-
eth against the Spirit, that ye cannot do the things that ye
would;' Gal. v. 17. and it unframes our spirit; and thence
is called the sin that so 'easily besets us ;' Heb. xii. 1. on
which account are those grievous complaints that the apostle
makes of it, Rom. vii. So that sin is always acting, always
conceiving, always seducing and tempting. Who can say that
he had ever any thing to do with God, or for God, that in-
dwelling sin had not a hand in the corrupting of what he did ?
And this trade will it drive more or less all our days. If then
sin will be always acting, if we be not always mortifying,
we are lost creatures. He that stands still, and suffers his
enemies to double blows upon him without resistance, will
undoubtedly be conquered in the issue. If sin be subtle,
watchful, strong, and always at work in the business of killing
our souls, and we be slothful, negligent, foolish, in proceed-
ing to the ruin thereof, can we expect a comfortable event ?
There is not a day but sin foils, or is foiled ; prevails or is
prevailed on : and it will be so whilst we live in this world.
IN BELIEVERS. 339
I shall discharge him from this duty, who can bring sin
to a composition, to a cessation of arms in this warfare, if it
will spare him any one day, in any one duty (provided he be
a person that is acquainted with the spirituality of obedience
and the subtlety of sin), let him say to his soul, as to this
duty ; Soul, take thy rest. The saints whose souls breathe
after deliverance from its perplexing rebellion, know there
is no safety against it, but in a constant warfare.
3. Sin will not only be striving, acting, rebelling, troubling,
disquieting, but if let alone, if not continually mortified, it will
bring forth great, cursed, scandalous, soul-destroying sins.
The apostle tells us what the works and fruits of it are. Gal.
V. 19—21. 'The works of the flesh are manifest, which are
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, sedi-
tions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revilings,
and such like.' You know what it did in David, and sundry
others. Sin aims always at the utmost : every time it rises
up to tempt or entice, might it have its own course, it would
go out to the utmost sin in that kind. Every unclean thought
or glance would be adultery, if it could ; every covetous de-
sire would be oppression; every thought of unbelief would
be atheism, might it grow to its head. Men may come to
that, that sin may not be heard speaking a scandalous word
in their hearts ; that is, provoking to any great sin with
scandal in its mouth ; but yet every rise of lust, might it
have its course, would come to the height of villany : it is
like the grave, that is never satisfied. And herein lies no
small share of the deceitfulness of sin, by which it prevails
to the hardening of men, and so to their ruin ; Heb. iii. 13.
it is modest as it were in its first motions and proposals ; but
having once got footing in the heart by them, it constantly
makes good its ground, and presseth on to some farther de-
grees in the same kind. This new acting and pressing for-
ward, makes the soul take little notice of what an entrance
to a falling off' from God is already made ; it thinks all is in-
different well, if there be no farther progress ; and so far as
the soul is made insensible of any sin, that is, as to such a
cause as the gospel requireth, so far it is hardened : but
sin is still pressing forward ; and that because it hath no
bounds but utter reUnquishment of God, and opposition to
z 2
340 MORTIFICATION OF SIX
him; that it proceeds towards its height by degrees making
good the ground it hath got by hardness, is not from its
nature, but its deceitfulness. Now nothing can prevent this,
but mortification ; that withers the root and strikes at the
head of sin every hour ; that whatever it aims at, it is crossed
in. There is not the best saint in the world, but if he should
give over this duty, would fall into as many cursed sins as
ever any did of his kind.
4. This is one main reason why the Spirit and the new
nature is given unto us, that we may have a principle within,
whereby to oppose sin and lust. ' The flesh lusteth against
the Spirit :' well ! and what then ? * why the Spirit also lust-
eth against the flesh ;' Gal. v. 17. There is a propensity in
the Spirit, or spiritual new nature, to be acting against the
flesh, as well as in the flesh to be acting against the Spirit :
so 2 Pet i. 4, 5. It is our participation of the divine na-
ture, that gives us an escape from the pollutions that are in
the world through lust: and Rom vii. 23. there is a law of
the mind, as well as a law of the members. Now this is,
first, the most unjust, and unreasonable thing in the world ;
when two combatants are engaged, to bind one, and keep
him up from doing his utmost, and to leave the other at li-
berty to wound him at his pleasure. And, secondly, the
foolisheth thing in the world, to bind him who fights for
our eternal condition, and to let him alone who seeks and
violently attempts our everlasting ruin. The contest is for
our lives and souls. Not to be daily employing the Spirit
and new nature, for the mortifying of sin, is to neglect that
excellent succour, which God hath given us against our
greatest enemy. If we neglect to make use of what we have
received, God may justly hold his hand from giving us more.
His graces, as well as his gifts, are bestowed on us, to use,
exercise, and trade with. Not to be daily mortifying sin, is to
sin against the goodness, kindness, wisdom, grace, and love
of God, who hath furnished us with a principle of doing it.
5. Negligence in this duty, casts the soul into a perfect
contrary condition to that which the apostle affirms was his;
2 Cor. iv. 16. * Though our outward man perish, our inward
man is renewed day by day.' In these the inward man perish-
eth, and the outward man is renewed day by day. Sin is as the
house of David, and grace as the house of Saul. Exercise and
IN BELIEVERS. 341
success are the two main cherishers of grace in the heart; when
it is suffered to lie still, it withers and decays ; the things of
it are ready to die. Rev. iii. 2. and sin gets ground towards
the hardening of the heart; Heb. iii. 13. This is that which
I intend, by the omission of this duty, grace withers, lust
flourisheth, and the frame of the heart grows worse and
worse ; and the Lord knows what desperate and fearful issues
it hath had with many. Where sin, through the neglect of
mortification gets a considerable victory, it breaks the bones
of the soul, Psal. xxxi. 10. li. 8. and makes a man weak,
sick, and ready to die, Psal. xxxviii. 3 — 5. that he cannot
look up ; Psal. xl. 12. Isa. xxxiii. 24. and when poor creatures
will take blow after blow, wound after wound, foil after foil,
and never rouse up themselves to a vigorous opposition,
can they expect any thing but to be hardened through the
deceitfulness of sin, and that their souls should bleed to
death? 2 John 8. Indeed it is a sad thing to consider the
fearful issues of this neglect, which lie under our eyes every
day. See we not those, whom we knew humble, melting,
broken hearted Christians, tender and fearful to offend, zea-
lous for God, and all his ways, his sabbaths, and ordinances,
grown through a neglect of watching unto this duty, earthly,,
carnal, cold, wrathful, complying with the men of the world,
and things of the world, to the scandal of religion, and the
fearful temptation of them that know them ? The truth is,
what between placing mortification in a rigid stubborn frame
of spirit, which is for the most part, earthly, legal, censori-
ous, partial, consistent with wrath, envy, malice, pride, on
the one hand, and pretences of liberty, grace, and I know
not what on the other, true evangelical mortification is almost
lost amongst us, of which afterward.
6. It is our duty to be perfecting holiness in the 'fear of
the Lord;' 2 Cor. vii. 1. to be growing in grace every day,
1 Pet. ii. 2. 2 Pet. iii. 18. to be renewing our inward man
day by day ; 2 Cor. iv. 16, Now this cannot be done without
the daily mortifying of sin : sin sets its strength against
every act of holiness, and against every degree we grow to.
Let not that man think he makes any progress in holiness,
who walks not over the bellies of his lusts ; he who doth not
kill sin in his way, takes no steps towards his journey's end.
He who finds not opposition from it, and who sets not him-
342 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
self in every particular to its mortification, is at peace with
it, not dying to it. •
This then is the first general principle of our ensuing dis-
course ; notwithstanding the meritorious mortification, if I
may so speak, of all and every sin in the cross of Christ;
notwithstanding the real foundation of universal mortifica-
tion laid in our first conversion, by conviction of sin, humi-
liation for sin, and the implantation of a new principle, op-
posite to it, and destructive of it; yet sin doth so remain, so
act, and work, in the best of believers, whilst they live in
this world, that the constant daily mortification of it is all
their days incumbent on them. Before I proceed to the con-
sideration of the next principle, I cannot but by the way
complain of many professors of these days ; who, instead of
brinsino; forth such 2:reat and evident fruits of mortification
as are expected, scarce bear any leaves of it. There is in-
deed a broad light fallen upon the men of this generation ;
and together therewith many spiritual gifts communicated,
which with some other considerations have wonderfully en-
larged the bounds of professors and profession ; both they
and it are exceedingly multiplied and increased. Hence
there is a noise of religion and religious duties in every
corner; preaching in abundance; and that not in an empty,
lio-ht, trivial, and vain manner, as formerly, but to a good
proportion of a spiritual gift ; so that if you wjU measure
the number of believers, by light, gifts, and profession, the
church may have cause to say, Wl^o hath borne me all these ?
But now if you will take the measure of them by this great
discriminating grace of Christians, perhaps you will find
their number not so multiplied. Where almost is that pro-
fessor, who owes his conversion to these days of light, and
so talks and professes at such a rate of spirituality, as few
in former days were in any measure acquainted witli (I will
not judge them, but perhaps boasting what the Lord hath
done in them), that doth not give evidence of a miserably
unmortified heart? If vain spending of time, idleness, unpro-
fitableness in men's places, envy, strife, variance, emulations,
wrath, pride, worldliness, selfishness, 1 Cor. i. be badges
of Christians, we have them on us, and amongst us, in abun-
dance. And if it be so with them, who have much light,
and which we hope is saving ; what shall we say of some
IN BELIEVERS, 343
who would be accounted religious, and yet despise gospel
light, and for the duty we have in hand, know no more of it,
but what consists in men's denying themselves sometimes
in outward enjoyments, which is one of the outmost branches
of it, which yet they will seldom practise. The good Lord
send out a spirit of mortification to cure our distempers, or
we are in a sad condition.
There are two evils which certainly attend erery unmor-
tified professor; the first in himself, the other in respect of
others.
(1.) In himself. Let him pretend what he will, he hath
slight thoughts of sin ; at least of sins of daily infirmity.
The root of an unmortified course, is the digestion of sin
without bitterness in the heart. When a man hath con-
firmed his imagination to such an apprehension of grace
and mercy, as to be able without bitterness to swallow and
digest daily sins, that man is at tlie very brink of turning
the grace of God into lasciviousness, and being hardened
by the deceitfulness of sin. Neither is there a greater evi-
dence of a false and rotten heart in the world, than to drive
such a trade. To use the blood of Christ, which is given
to cleanse us; 1 John i. 7. Tit. ii. 14. the exaltation of
Christ, which is to give us repentance ; Acts v. 31. the doc-
trine of grace, which teaches us to deny all ungodliness ;
Tit. ii. 11, 12. to countenance sin is a rebellion, that in the
issue will break the bones. At this door have g-one out from
us, most of the professors that have apostatized in the days
wherein we live, for awhile they were most of them under
convictions ; these kept them unto duties, and brought them
to profession. So they * escaped the pollutions that are in
the world, through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ ;'
2 Pet. ii. 20. But having got an acquaintance with the doc-
trine of the gospel, and beizig weary of duty, for which they
had no principle, they began to countenance themselves in
manifold neglects, from the doctrine of grace. Now when
once this evil had laid hold of them, they speedily tumbled
into perdition.
(2.) To others. It hath an evil influence on them, on a
twofold account.
[1.] It hardens them, by begetting in them a persuasion
that they are in as good condition as the best professors.
344 MORTII-ICATION OF SIN
Whatever ihey see in theni, is so stained for want of this
mortification, that it is of no value with them ; they have a
zeal for religion, but it is accompanied with want of forbear-
ance, and universal righteousness. They deny prodigality,
but with worldliness ; they separate from the world, but live
wholly to themselves, taking no care to exercise loving-
kindness in the earth ; or they talk spiritually, and live
vaiiily ; mention communion with God, and are every way
conformed to the world, boasting of forgiveness of sin, and
never forgiving others; and with such considerations do
poor creatures harden their hearts in their unregeneracy.
[2.] They deceive them in making them believe, that if
they can come up to tlieir condition, it shall be well with
them : and so it grows an easy thing, to have the great
temptation of repute in religion to wrestle withal ; when
they may go far beyond them, as to what a])pears in them,
and yet come short of eternal life ; but of these things, and
all the evils of unmortified walking, afterward.
CHAP. III.
The second general principle of the means of mortification proposed to con-
firmation. The Spirit the only author of this work. Vanity of Popish
inortification discovered. Blany means of it used hy them 7iot appointed
of God. Those appointed hy him abused. The mistahes of others in this
business. The Spirit is promised believers for this work ; Ezek. i. 19.
xxxvi. 2(5. All that we receive from Christ, is ly the Spirit. How
the Spirit mortifies sin ; Gal. v. 19 — 2.3. The several ways of hi^ opera-
tions to this end proposed. How his work, and our duty.
The next principle relates to the great sovereign cause of
the mortification treated of, which, in the words laid for
the foundation of this discourse, is said to be the Spirit ;
that is, the Holy Ghost, as was evinced.
He only is suflScient for this work ; all ways and means
without him are as a thing of nought; and he is the great
efficient of it, he works in us as he pleases.
1. In vain do men seek other remedies, they shall not be
healed by them. What several ways have been prescribed
for this, to have sin mortified is known. The greatest part
of Popish rtligioh, of that which looks most like religion in
IN BELIEVERS. 345
their profession, consists in mistaken ways and means of
mortification. This is the pretence of their rough garments,
whereby they deceive. Their vows, orders, fastings, pe-
nances, are all built on this ground, they are all for the mor-
tifying of sin. Their preachings, sermons, and books of de-
votion, they look all this way. Hence those who interpret the
locusts that came out of the bottomless pit, R-ev. ix. 2. to
be the friars of the Romish church, who are said to torment
men, so ' that they should seek death and not find it,' ver. 6.
think, that they did it by their stinging sermons, whereby
they convinced them of sin, but being not able to discover
the remedy for the healing and mortifying of it, they keep
them in such perpetual anguish and terror, and such trou-
ble in their consciences, that they desired to die. This I say
is the substance and glory of their religion : but what with
their labouring to mortify dead creatures, ignorant of the na-
ture and end of the work, what with the poison they mixed
with it, in their persuasion of its merit, yea, supererogation,
(as they style their unnecessary merit, with a proud barba-
rous title) their glory is their shame ; but of them and their
mortification, more afterward : chap. viii.
That the ways and means to be used for the mortification
of sin invented by them, are still insisted on and prescribed
for the same end by some, who should have more light and
knowledge of the gospel, is known. Such directions to this
purpose have of late been given by some, and are greedily
catched at by others professing themselves Protestants, as
might have become Popish devotionists three or four hun-
dred years ago. Such outside endeavours, such bodily ex-
ercises, such self-performances, such merely legal duties,
without the least mention of Christ, or his Spirit, are var-
nished over with swelling words of vanity, for the only
means and expedients for the mortification of sin, as disco-
ver a deep-rooted unacquaintedness with the power of God,
and mystery of the gospel. The consideration hereof was
one motive to the publishing of this plain discourse.
Now the reasons why the Papists can never with all
their endeavours truly mortify any one sin, amongst others,
are,
(1.) Because many of the ways and means they use and
insist upon, fot this end, were never appointed of God for
346 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
that purpose. Now there is nothing in religion that hath
any efficacy for compassing an end, but it hath it from God's
appointment of it to that purpose. Such as these are their
rough garments, their vows, penances, disciplines, their
course of monastical life, and the like, concerning all which
Godwin say, 'Who hath required these things at your hands?'
And ' In vain do you worship me, teaching for doctrine the
traditions of men.' Of the same nature are sundry self-
vexations, insisted on by others.
(2.) Because those things that are appointed of God as
means, are not used by them in their due place and order ;
such as are praying, fasting, watching, meditation, and the
like ; these have their use in the business in hand. But
whereas they are all to be looked on as streams, they look
on them as the fountain. Whereas they effect and accom-
plish the end, as means only subordinate to the Spirit and
faith, they look on them to do it by virtue of the work
wrought. If they fast so much, and pray so much, and keep
their hours and times, the work is done ; as the apostle
says of some in another case, they are always learning, never
coming to the knowledge of the trutli ; so they are always
mortifying, but never come to any sound mortification. In
a word, they have sundry means to mortify the natural man,
as to the natural life here we lead ; none to mortify lust or
corruption.
This is the general mistake of men ignorant of the gos-
pel about this thing ; and it lies at the bottom of very much
of that superstition and will-worship that hath been brought
into the world. What horrible self macerations were prac-
tised by some of the ancient authors of monastical devotion?
what violence did they offer to nature ? what extremity of
sufferings did they put themselves upon ? search their ways
and principles to the bottom, and you will find, that it had
no other root but this mistake ; namely, that attempting
rigid mortification they fell upon the natural man, instead of
'he corrupt old man ; upon the body wherein we live, in-
- jad of the body of death.
Neitiier will the natural Popery that is in others do it.
Men are galled with the guilt of a sin that hath prevailed
over them ; they instantly promise to themselves and God,
that they will do so no more ; they watch over themselves,
IN BELIEVERS. 347
and pray for a season, until this heat waxes cold, and the
sense of sin is worn off, and so mortification goes also,
and sin returns to its former dominion : duties are excellent
food for an healthy soul ; they are no physic for a sick soul.
He that turns his meat into his medicine, must expect no
great operation. Spiritually sick men cannot sweat out
their distemper with working. But this is the way of men
who deceive their own souls, as we shall see afterward.
That none of these ways are sufficient, is evident from
the nature of the work itself that is to be done ; it is a work
that requires so many concurrent actings in it as no self-
endeavour can reach unto, and is of that kind, that an Al-
mighty energy is necessary for its accomplishment, as shall
be afterward manifested.
2. It is then the work of the Spirit. For
(1.) He is promised of God to be given unto us to do
this work ; the taking away of the stony heart, that is, the
stubborn, proud, rebellious, unbelieving heart, is in general
the work of mortification that we treat of. Now this is still
promised to be done by the Spirit; Ezek. xi. 19. xxxvi. 26.
' I will give my Spirit, and take away the stony heart;' and
by the Spirit of God is this work wrought, when all means
fail; Isa. Ivii. 17, 18.
(2.) We have all our mortification from the gift of Christ,
and all the gifts of Christ are communicated to us, and
given us by the Spirit of Christ. 'Without Christ we can
do nothing ;' John xv. 5. all communications of supplies
and relief in the beginnings, increasings, actings, of any
grace whatever from him, are by the Spirit, by whom he
alone works in, and upon believers. From him we have
our mortification ; ' He is exalted and made a prince, and a
Saviour, to give repentance unto us ; Acts v. 31. and of our
repentance our mortification is no small portion. How doth
he do it? Having received the promise of the Holy Ghost,
he sends him abroad for that end; Acts ii. 33. you know
the manifold promises he made of sending the Spirit, as
TertuUian speaks, ' Vicariam navare operam,' to do the
works that he had to accomplish in us.
The resolution of one or two questions, will now lead me
nearer to what I principally intend.
How doth the Spirit mortify sin ?
348 MORTIFICATION OF SIM
I answer, in general, three ways.
[1.] By causing our hearts to abound in grace and the
fruits that are contrary to the flesh, and the fruits thereof,
and principles of them. So the apostle opposes the fruits
of the flesh, and of the Spirit : the fruits of the flesh, says
he, are so and so ; Gal. v. 19, 20. but, says he, the fruits of
the Spirit are quite contrary, quite of another sort ; ver.
22, 23. yea, but whatif these are in us, and do abound, may
not the other abound also ? No, says he, ver. 24. 'They that
are Christ's, have crucified the flesh with the affections and
lusts :' but how? why, ver. 25, ' By living in the Spirit, and
walking after the Spirit,' that is, by the abounding of these
graces of the Spirit in us, and walking according to them.
For, saith the apostle, these are ' contrary one to another,'
ver. 17. so that they cannot both be in the same subject, in
any intense or high degree. This ' renewing of us by the
Holy Ghost,' as it is called, Tit. iii. 5. is one great way of
mortification ; he causes us to grow, thrive, flourish, and
abound, in those graces vv'hich are contrary, opposite, and
destructive, to all the fruits of the flesh, and to the quiet or
thriving of indwelling sin itself.
[2.] By a real, physical efficiency on the root and habit
of sin, for the weakening, destroying, and taking it away.
Hence he is called a ' Spirit of judgment and burning ;'
Isa. iv. 4. really consuming and destroying our lusts. He
takes away the stony heart by an almighty efiiciency ; for
as he begins the work as to its kind, so he carries it on as
to its degrees. He is the fire which burns up the very root
of lust.
[o.] He brings the cross of Christ into the heart of a sinner
by faith, and gives us communion with Christ in his death,
and fellowship in his sufferings; of the manner whereof
more afterward.
If this be the work of the Spirit alone, how i<s it that we
are exhorted to it? Seeing the Spirit of God only can do
it, let the work be left wholly to him.
[1.] It is no otherwise the work of the Spirit, but as all
graces and good works, which are in us, are his ; he works
in us to 'will and to do of his own good pleasure;' Phil. ii. 13.
He works all ' our works in us ;' Isa. xxvi. 12. ' the work of
faith with power;' 2 Thess. i. 11. Col. ii. 12. He causes us
IN BELIEVERS. 349
to pray, and is a Spirit of supplication; Rom. viii. 26. Zech.
xii. 10. and yet we are exhorted, and are to be exhorted, to
all these.
[2.j He doth not so work our raortification in us, as not
to keep it still an act of our obedience. The Holy Ghost
works in us, and upon us, as we are fit to be wrought in, and
upon; that is, so as to preserve our own liberty and i'vee
obedience. He works upon our understandings, wills, con-
sciences, and affections, agreeably to their own natures; he
works in us, and with us, not against us, or without us ; so
that his assistance is an encouragement, as to the facilitating
of the work, and no occasion of neglect, as to the work
itself. And indeed I might here bewail the endless, foolish
labour of poor souls, who, being convinced of sin, and not
able to stand against the power of their convictions, do set
themselves by innumerable perplexing ways and duties to
keep down sin, but being strangers to the Spirit of God, all
in vain. They combat without victory, have war without
peace, and are in slavery all their da,ys. They spend their
strength for tliat which is not bread, and their labour for
that which profiteth not.
This is the saddest warfare that any poor creature can be
engaged in. A soul under the power of conviction from the
law, is pressed to fight against sin, but hath no strength for
the combat. They cannot but fight, and they can never
conquer, they are like men thrust on the sword of enemies,
on purpose to be slain. The law drives them on, and sin
beats them back. Sometimes they think indeed that they
have foiled sin ; when they have only raised a dust that they
see it not; that is they distemper their natural affections of
fear, sorrow, and anguish, which makes them believe that
sin is conquered, when it is not touched. By that time they
are cold, they must. to the battle again ; and the lust which
they thought to be slain, appears to have had no wound.
And if the case be so sad with them who do labour and
strive, and yet enter not into the kingdom ; what is their
condition who despise all this ? who are perpetually under
the power and dominion of sin, and love to have it so ; and
are troubled at nothing, but that they cannot make sufficient
provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof?
350 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
CHAP. IV.
The last principle ; of the usefulness of mortification. The vigour and
comfort of our spiritual lives depend on our mortification. In what sense.
Not absolutely and necessarily , Psal. Ixxxviii. Heman's condition. Not
as on the next and immediate cause. As a means ; by removing of the
contrary. The desperate effects of any iinmortified lust : it weakens the
soul, Psal. xxxviii. 3. 8. sundry ways, and darkens it. All graces im-
proved by the mortification of sin. The best evidence of sincerity.
The last principle I shall insist on, omitting first, The ne-
cessity of mortification unto life ; and, secondly. The cer-
tainty of life upon mortification, is.
That the life, vigour, and comfort, of our spiritual life
depends much on our mortification of sin.
Strength, and comfort, and power, and peace, in our
walking with God, are the things of our desires. Were any
of us asked seriously, what it is that troubles us, we must
refer it to one of these heads ; either we want strength, or
power, vigour, and life, in our obedience, in our walking
with God ; or we want peace, comfort, and consolation
therein. Whatever it is that may befall a believer, that
doth not belong to one of these two heads, doth not deserve
to be mentioned in the days of our complaints.
Now all these do much depend on a constant course of
mortification ; concerning which observe,
1. I do not say they proceed from it, as though they
were necessarily tied to it. A man may be carried on in a
constant course of mortification all his days, and yet per-
haps never enjoy a good day of peace and consolation. So
it was wath Heman, Psal. Ixxxviii. his life was a life of per-
petual mortification, and walking with God, yet terrors and
wounds were his portion all his days. But God singled out
Heman a choice friend, to make him an example to them
that afterward should be in distress. Canst thou complain
if it be no otherwise with thee than it was with Heman, that
eminent servant of God ? and this shall be his praise to the
end of the world ; God makes it his prerogative to speak
peace and consolation; Isa. Ivii. 18, 19. 'I will do that
work, says God: I will comfort him;' ver. 18. but how ?
IN BELIEVERS. 351
by an immediate work of the new creation ; * I create it/
says God. The use of means for the obtaining of peace is
ours ; the bestowing of it is God's prerogative.
2. In the ways instituted by God for to give us life,
vigour, courage, and consolation, mortification is not one
of the immediate causes of it. They are the privileges of
our adoption made known to our souls that give us imme-
diately these things. ' The Spirit bearing witness with our
spirits that we are the children of God :' giving us a new
name, and a white stone; adoption and justification; that
is, as to the sense and knowledge of them, are the immediate
causes (in the hand of the Spirit) of these things. But this,
1 say,
3. In our ordinary walking with God, and in an ordinary
course of his dealing with us, the vigour and comfort of
our spiritual lives, depends much on our mortification, not
only as a * causa sine qua non,' but as a thing that hath an
effectual influence thereinto. For,
(1.) This alone keeps sin from depriving us of the one
and the other.
Every unmortified sin will certainly do two things.
[1.] It will weaken the soul, and deprive it of its vigour.
[2.] It will darken the soul and deprive it of its comfort and
peace.
1. It weakens the soul and deprives it of its strength.
When David had for awhile harboured an unmortified lust
in his heart, it broke all his bones, and left him no spiritual
strength ; hence he complained that he was sick, weak,
wounded, faint ; ' There is,' saith he, * no soundness in me ;'
Psal.xxxviii. 3. * I am feeble and sore broken ;' ver. 8. 'yea,
I cannot so much as look up ;' Psal. xl. 12. An unmortified
lust will drink up the spirit, and all the vigour of the soul,
and weaken it for all duties. For,
1. It untunes and unframes the heart itself by entangling
its affections. It diverts the heart from the spiritual frame
that is required for vigorous communion with God. It lays
hold on the affections, rendering its object beloved and de-
sirable; so expelling the love of the Father, 1 John ii. 1.
iii. 17. so that the soul cannot say uprightly and truly to
God, Thou art my portion, having something else that it
loves. Fear, desire, hope, which are the choice affections
352 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
of the soul, that should be full of God, will be one way or
other entangled with it.
2. It fills the thoughts with contrivances about it.
Thoughts are the gr^at purveyors of the soul, to bring in
provision to satisfy its affections ; and if sin renaain unmor-
tified in the heart, they must ever and anon be making pro-
vision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. They must
glaze, adorn, and dress the objects of the flesh, and bring
them home to give satisfaction. And this they are able to
do, in the service of a defiled imagination, beyond all ex-
pression.
3. It breaks out and actually hinders duty. The ambi-
tious man must by studying, and the worldling must be
working or contriving, and the sensual vain person provid-
ing himself for vanity, when they should be engaged in the
worship of God.
Were this my present business, to set forth the breaches,
ruin, weakness, desolations, that one unraortified lust will
bring upon a soul, this discourse must be extended much
beyond my intendment.
[2.] As sin weakens, so it darkens the soul. It is a cloud,
a thick cloud, that spreads itself over the face of the soul,
and intercepts all the beams of God's love and favour. It
takes away all sense of the privilege of our adoption; and
if the soul begins to gather up thoughts of consolation, sin
quickly scatters them. Of which afterward.
Now in this regard doth the vigour and power of our
spiritual life depend on our mortification. It is the only
means of the removal of that, which will allow us neither
the one nor the other. Men that are sick and wounded un-
der the power of lust, make many applications for help ;
they cry to God when the perplexity of their thoughts over-
whelms them ; even to God do they cry, but are not deliver-
ed ; in vain do they use many remedies, * they shall not be
healed;' so Hos. v. 13. * Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah
his wound,' and attempted sundry remedies ; nothing will do
until they come, ver. 15. to acknowledge their ofience.
Men may see their sickness and wounds, but yet, if they
make not due applications, their cure will not be afl'ected.
(2.) Mortification prunes all the graces of God, and
makes room for them in our hearts to ^'ow. The life and
IN BELIEVERS. 353
vigour of our spiritual lives consists in the vigour and flou-
rishing of the plants of grace in our hearts. Now as you
may see in a garden, let there be a precious herb planted,
and let the ground be untilled, and weeds grow about it,
perhaps it will live still, but be a poor, withering, unuseful
thing ; you must look and search for it, and sometimes can
scarce find it ; and when you do, you can scarce know it,
whether it be the plant you look for or no ; and suppose it be
you can make no use of it at all ; when let another of the
same kind be set in ground, naturally as barren and bad as
the other; but let it be well weeded, and every thing that
is noxious and hurtful removed from it, it flourishes and
thrives ; you may see it at first look into the garden, and
have it for your use when you please. So it is with the
graces of the Spirit that are planted in our hearts. That is
true ; they are still, they abide in a heart where there is some
neglect of mortification ; but they are ready to die ; Rev.
iii. 2. they are withering and decaying. The h-eart is like
the sluggards field, so overgrown with weeds, that you can
scarce see the good corn. Such a man may search for faith,
love, and zeal, and scarce be able to find any ; and if he do
discover that these graces are there, yet alive, and sincere ;
yet they are so weak, so clogged with lusts, that they are of
very little use ; they remain indeed, but are ready to die.
But now let the heart be cleansed by mortification, the
weeds of lust constantly and daily rooted up (as they spring
daily, nature being their proper soil), let room be made for
grace to thrive and flourish ; how will every grace act its
part, and be ready for every use and purpose.
(3.) As to our peace ; as their is nothing that hath any
evidence of sincerity without it, so I know nothing that hath
such an evidence of sincerity in it ; which is no small foun-
dation of our peace. Mortification is the soul's vigorous
opposition to self, wherein sincerity is most evident.
VOL. VII.
354 iMORTIFICATION OF SI??
CHAP. V.
The principal intendment of the whole discourse proposed. The first maia
case of conscience stated. What it is to mortify any sin, negatively con-
sidered. Not the utter destruction of it in this life. Not the dissinmla-
tion of it. Not the improvement of any natural principle. Not the di-
version of it. Not an occasional conquest. Occasional conquests of sin,
what, and when. Upon the eruption of sin. In time of danger or
trouble.
These things being premised, I come to my principal in-
tention, of handling some questions or practical cases that
present themselves in this business of mortification of sin
in believers.
The first, which is the head of all the rest, and vvhere-
unto they are reduced, may be considered as laying under
the ensuing proposal.
Suppose a man to be a true believer, and yet finds in
himself a powerful indwelling sin, leading him captive to
the law of it, consuming his heart with trouble, perplex-
ino- his thoughts, weakening his soul, as to duties of com-
munion with God, disquieting him as to peace, and perhaps
defiling his conscience, and exposing him to hardening
throuo-h the deceitfulness of sin, what shall he do? What
course shall he take and insist on, for the mortification of
this sin, lust, distemper, or corruption, to such a degree, as
that though it be not utterly destroyed, yet, in his contest
with it, he may be enabled to keep up power, strength, and
peace, in communion with God ?
In answer to this important inquiry, I shall do these
things,
I. Shew what it is to mortify any sin ; and that both
neo-atively and positively, that we be not mistaken in the
foundation.
II. Give general directions for such things, as without
which it will be utterly impossible for any one to get any sin
truly and spiritually mortified.
III. Draw out the particulars whereby this is to be done:
in the whole carrying on this consideration, that it is not of
the doctrine of mortification in general, but only in re-
IN BELIEVERS. 355
ference to the particular case before proposed, that I am
treating.
1 . To mortify a sin, is not utterly to kill, root it out, and
destroy it, that it should have no more hold at all, nor resi-
dence in our hearts. It is true, this is that which is aimed
at, but this is not in this life to be accomplished. There is
no man that truly sets himself to mortify any sin, but he
aims at, intends, desires its utter destruction ; that it should
leave neither root nor fruit in the heart or life. He would
so kill it, that it should never move or stir any more, cry or
call, seduce or tempt, to eternity. Its not being is the thing
aimed at. Now though doubtless there may by the Spirit
and grace of Christ a wonderful success and eminency of
victory against any sin be attained, so that a man may have
almost constant triumph over it; yet an utter killing and
destruction of it, that it should not be, is not in this life to
be expected. This Paul assures us of, Phil. iii. 12. 'Not
as though I had already attained, or were already perfect.'
He was a choice saint, a pattern for believers, who in faith
and love, and all the fruits of the Spirit, had not his fellow
in the world ; and on that account ascribes perfection to
himself, in comparison of others, ver. 15. yet he had not at-
tained ; he was not perfect, but was following after : still
a vile body he had, and we have, that must be changed
by the great power of Christ at last; ver. 21. This we would
have, but God sees it best for us, that we should be com-
plete in nothing in ourselves ; that in all things we must be
complete in Christ, which is best for us ; Col. ii. 10.
2. I think I need not say, it is not the dissimulation of a
sin ; when a' man on some outward respects forsakes the
practice of any sin ; men perhaps may look on him as a
changed man ; God knows that to his former iniquity he
hath added cursed hypocrisy, and is got in a safer path to
hell, than he was in before. He hath got another heart
than he had, that is, more cunning, not a new heart, that is,
more holy.
3. The mortification of sin consists not in the improve-
ment of a quiet, sedate nature. Some men have an advan-
tage by their natural constitution, so far, as that they are
not exposed to such violence of unruly passions, and tumul-
tuous affections, as many others are. Let now these men
2 A 2
356 MORTFIICATION OF SIX
cultivate and improve their natural frame and temper, by
discipline, consideration, and prudence, and they may seem
to themselves and others, very mortified men, when perhaps
their hearts are a standing sink of all abominations; some
man is never so much troubled all his life perhaps with anger
and passion, nor doth trouble others, as another is almost
every day ; and yet the latter hath done more to the mortifi-
cation of the sin than the former. Let not such persons try
their mortification by such things, as their natural temper
gives no life or vigour to : let them bring themselves to self-
denial, unbelief, envy, or some such spiritual sin, and they
will have a better view of themselves.
4. A sin is not mortified, when it is only diverted.
Simon Magus for a season left his sorceries ; but his covet-
ousness and ambition that set him on work, remained still,
and would have been acting another way : therefore Peter
tells him, *1 perceive thou art in the gall of bitterness ;' not-
withstanding the profession thou hast made, notwithstand-
ing thy relinquishment of thy sorceries, thy lust is as pow-
erful as ever in thee : the same lust, only the streams of it
are diverted : it now exerts and puts forth itself another
way, but it is the old gall of bitterness still. A man may be
sensible of a lust, set himself against the eruptions of it,
take care that it shall not break forth as it hath done ; but
in the meantime suffer the same corrupted habit to vent it-
self some other way. As he who heals and skins a running
sore, thinks himself cured, but in the meantime his flesh fes-
teretli by the corruption of the same humour, and breaks
out in another place. And this diversion, with the altera-
tions that attend it, often befalls men, on accounts wholly
foreign unto grace ; change of the course of life that a man
was in ; of relations, interests, designs, may effect it ; yea,
the very alterations in men's constitutions, occasioned by a
natural progress in the course of their lives, may produce
such changes as these ; men in age, do not usually persist
in the pursuit of youthful lusts, although they have never
mortified any one of them. And the same is the case of
bartering of lusts, and leaving to serve one, that a man may
serve another. He that changes pride for worldliness, sen-
suality for pharisaism, vanity in himself to the contempt of
others ; let him not think that he hath mortified the sin tiiat
IN BELIEVERS. 357
he seems to have left. He hath changed his master, but is
a servant still.
5. Occasional conquests of sin do not amount to a mor-
tifying of it.
There are two occasions or seasons, wherein a man who
is contending with any sin, may seem to himself to have
mortified it.
1. When it hath had some sad eruption to the disturb-
ance of his peace, terror of his conscience, dread of
scandal, and evident provocation of God. This awakens
and stirs up all that is in the man, and amazes him, fills him
with abhorrency of sin, and himself for it ; sends him to God,
makes him cry out as for life, to abhor his lust as hell, and
to set himself against it. The whole man, spiritual and na-
tural, being now awaked, sin shrinks in its head, appears not,
but lies as dead before him. As when one that hath drawn
nigh to an army in the night, and hath killed a principal
person ; instantly the guards awake, men are roused up, and
strict inquiry is made after the enemy: who in the meantime,
until the noise and tumult be over, hides himself, or lies
like one that is dead, yet with firm resolution to do the like
mischief again, upon the like opportunity. Upon the sin
among the Corinthians, see how they muster up themselves
for the surprisal and destruction of it ; 2 Epist. chap. vii. 11.
So it is in a person, when a breach hath been made upon his
conscience, quiet, perhaps credit, by his lust, in some erup-
tion of actual sin, carefulness, indignation, desire, fear, re-
venge, are all set on work about it, and against it. And lust
is quiet for a season, being run down before them; but when
the hurry is over, and the inquest past, the thief appears
again alive, and is as busy as ever at his work.
2. In a time of some judgment, calamity, or pressing af-
fliction; the heart is then taken up with thoughts and con-
trivances of flying from the present troubles, fears, and dan-
gers : this, as a convinced person concludes, is to be done,
only by relinquishment of sin, which gains peace with God.
It is the anger of God in every afiliction that galls a con-
vinced person. To be quit of this, men resolve at such times
against their sins. Sin shall never more have any place in
them ; they will never again give up themselves to the ser-
vice of it. Accordingly sin is quiet, stirs not, seems to be
358 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
mortified ; not indeed that it hath received any one wound,
but merely because the soul hath possessed its faculties,
whereby it should exert itself, with thoughts inconsistent
with the motions thereof ; which, when they are laid aside,
sin returns again to its former life and vigour. So they,
Psal. Ixxviii. 32 — 38. are a full instance and description
of this frame of spirit, whereof I speak. * For all this they
sinned still and believed not for his wondrous works. There-
fore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in
trouble. When he slew them, then they sought him, and
they returned, and inquired early after God. And they re-
membered that God was their rock, and the high God their
redeemer. Nevertheless, they did flatter him with their
mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues. For their
heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in
his covenant.' I no way doubt, but that when they sought,
and returned, and inquired early after God, they did it
with full purpose of heart, as to the relinquishment of their
sLns ; it is expressed in the word * returned.' To turn or
return to the Lord, is by a relinquishment of sin. This they
did early, with earnestness and diligence ; but yet their sin
was unmortified for all this ; ver. 36, 37. and this is the state
of many humiliations in the days of affliction, and a great
.deceit in the hearts of believers themselves, lies oftentimes
herein.
These, and many other ways there are, whereby poor
souls deceive themselves, and suppose they have mortified
their lusts, when they live and are mighty, and on every oc-
casion break forth to their disturbance and disquietness.
CHAP. VI.
The mortification of sin in particular described. The several parts and de-
grees thereof. The hahilual iveaheniug of its root and principal. The
power of lust to tempt. Differences of that potver as to persons and times.
Constant fighting u(jainsl sin. The parts thereof considered. Success
against it. The sum of this discourse considered.
What it is to mortify a sin in general which will make far-
ther way for particular directions, isnextly to be considered.
The mortification of a lust consists in three things.
IN BELIEVERS. 359'
1. An habitual weakening of it. Every lust is a depraved
habit or disposition, continually inclining the heart to evil.
Thence is that description of him, who hath no lust truly
mortified ; Gen. vi. 5- * Every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart is only evil continually,' He is always under
the power of a strong bent and inclination to sin. And
the reason why a natural man is not always, perpetually, in
the pursuit of some one lust night and day, is, because he
hath many to serve, every one crying to be satisfied ; thence
he is carried on with great variety, but still in general he lies
towards the satisfaction of self.
We will suppose then the lust or distemper, whose mor-
tification is inquired after, to be in itself a strong, deeply
rooted, habitual inclination and bent of will and aflfections,
unto some actual sin, as to the matter of it, though not under
that formal consideration, always stirring up imaginations,
thoughts, and contrivances about the object of it. Hence
men are said to have their hearts set upon evil, the bent of
their spirits lies towards it, to make provision for the flesh.*
And a sinful depraved habit, as in many other things, so in
this, differs from all natural or moral habits whatever; for
whereas they incline the soul gently and suitably to itself,
sinful habits impel with violence and impetuousness : whence
lusts are said to fight or wage war against the soul;'' 1 Pet. ii.
11. to rebel, or rise up in war with that conduct and opposi-
tion which is usual therein j*^ Rom. vii. 23. to lead captive, or
effectually captivating upon success in battle : all works of
great violence and impetuousness.
I mis;ht manifest fully from that description we have of
it, Rom. vii. how it will darken the mind, extinguish con-
victions, dethrone reason, interrupt the power and influence
of any considerations, that may be brought to hamper it, and
break through all into a flame. But this is not my present
business. Now the first thing in mortification is the weak-
ening of this habit of sin or lust, that it shall not with that
violence, earnestness, frequency, rise up, conceive, tumul-
tuate, provoke, entice, disquiet, as naturally it is apt to do ;
James i. 14, 15.
I shall desire to give one caution or rule by the way ;
" Eom. xiii. 14.
360
MORTIFICATION OF SIN
and it is this. Though every lust doth in its own nature,
equally, universally incline and impel to sin, yet this must
be granted with these two limitations.
(1.) One lust, or a lust in one man, may receive many ac-
cidental improvements, heightenings, and strengthenings,
which may give it life, power, and vigour, exceedingly above
what another lust hath, or the same lust, that is of the same
kind and nature, in another man. When a lust falls in with the
natural constitutions and temper, with a suitable course of
life, with occasions ; orv?hen Satan hath got a fit handle to
it to manage it, as he hath a thousand ways so to do ; that
lust grows violent and impetuous above others, or more than
the same lust in another man ; then the steams of it darken
the mind so, that though a man knows the same things as
formerly, yet they have no power nor influence on the
will, but corrupt affections and passions are set by it at li-
berty.
But especially, lust gets strength by temptation : when
a suitable temptation falls in with a lust, it gives it a new
life, vigour, power, violence, and rage, which it seemed not
before to have, or to be capable of. Instances to this pur-
pose might be multiplied ; but it is the design of some part
of another treatise to evince this observation.
(2.) Some lusts are far more sensible and discernable in
their violent actings than others. Paul puts a difference
between uncleanness and all other sins; 1 Cor. vi. 18. ' Flee
fornication. Every sin that a man doth, is without the body;
but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own
body.' Hence the motions of that sin are more sensible,
more discernable than of others ; when perhaps, the love of
the world, or the like, is in a person no less habitually predo-
minant than that, yet it makes not so great a combustion in
the whole man.
And on this account some men may go in their own
thoughts and in the eyes of the world, for mortified men ;
who yet have in them no less predominancy of lust, than
those who cry out with astonishment upon the account of
its perplexing tumultuatings. Yea then those who have by
the power of it, been hurried into scandalous sins ; only
their lusts are in and about things, which raise not such a
tumult in the soul, about which they are exercised with a
IN BELIEVERS. 361
calmer frame of spirit ; the very fabrick of nature being not
so nearly concerned in them, as in some other.
I say, then, that the first thing in mortification is the
weakening of this habit, that it shall not impel and tu-
multuate as formerly, that it shall not entice and draw
aside, that it shall not disquiet and perplex the killing of its
life, vigour, promptness, and readiness to be stirring. This
is called ' crucifying the flesh with the lusts thereof;' Gal. v.
24. that is, taking away its blood and spirits, that give it
strength and powder. The wasting of the body of death day
by day; 2 Cor. iv. 16. As a man nailed to the cross; he
first struggles, and strives, and cries out with great strength
and might ; but as his blood and spirits waste, his strivings
are faint and seldom, his cries low and hoarse, scarce to
be heard. When a man first sets on a lust or distemper, to
deal with it, it struggles with great violence to break loose ;
it cries with earnestness and impatience to be satisfied and
relieved ; but when by mortification the blood and spirits of
it are let out, it moves seldom and faintly, cries sparino-Iy^
and is scarce heard in the heart ; it may have sometimes a
dying pang, that makes an appearance of great vigour and
strength, but it is quickly over, especially if it be kept from
considerable success. This the apostle describes as in the
whole chapter, so especially ver. 6. chap. vi. to the Romans.
Sin,saith he, is crucified; it is fastened to the cross ; to what
end ? ' that the body of death may be destroyed ;' the power
of sin weakened, and abolished by little and little ; that
'henceforth we should not serve sin;' that is, that sin might
not incline, impel us with such efficacy, as to make us ser-
vants to it, as it hath done heretofore. And this is spoken
not only with respect to carnal and sensual affections, or de-
sires of worldly things ; not only in respect of the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, but also as
to the flesh, that is in the mind and will, in that opposition
unto God, which is in us by nature. Of what nature soever
the troubling distemper be, by what ways soever it make it-
self out, either by impelling to evil or hindering from that
which is good, the rule is the same. And unless this be
done effectually, all after contention will not compass the
end aimed at. A man may beat down the bitter fruit from
an evil tree, until he is weary; whilst the root abides in
362 MORTIFICATIOX OF SIN
strengtli and vigour, the beating down of the present f'rui?
will not hinder it from bringing forth more ; this is the folly
of some men ; they set themselves with all earnestness and
diligence against the appearing eruption of lust; but leaving
the principle and root untouched, perhaps unsearched out,
they make but little or no progress in this work of mortifi-
cation.
2. In constant fighting and contending against sin. To
be able always to be laying load on sin, is no small degree of
mortification. When sin is strono- and vioorous, the soul is
scarce able to make any head against it : it sighs, and groans,
and mourns, and is troubled, as David speaks of himself, but
seldom has sin in the pursuit ; David complains that his sin
had taken ' fast hold upon him, that he could not look up;'
Psal. xl. 12. how little then was he able to fioht aoainst it ?
Now sundry things are required unto, and comprised in this
fiohtins; ao;ainst sin.
(1.) To know that a man hath such an enemy to deal withal ;
to take notice of it, to consider it as an enemy indeed, and
one that is to be destroyed by all means possible, is required
hereunto. As I said before, the contest is vigorous and ha-
zardous ; it is about the things of eternity. When therefore
men have slight and transient thoughts of their lusts, it is
no great sign that they are mortified, or that they are in a
way for their mortification. This is, every man's knowing
*the plague of his own heart;' 1 Kings viii. 38. without
which no other work can be done. It is to be feared that
very many have little knowledge of the main enemy, that
they carry about them in their bosoms. This makes them
ready to justify themselves, and to be impatient of reproof
or admonition, not knowing that they are in any danger ;
2 Chron. xvi. 10.
(2.) To labour to be acquainted with the ways, wills, me-
thods, advantages, and occasions of its success, is the be-
sinnine; of this warfare. So do men deal with enemies.
They inquire out their councils and designs, ponder their
ends, consider how and by what means they have formerly
prevailed, that they may be prevented ; in this consists the
greatest skill in conduct. Take this away, and all waging
of war, wherein is the greatest improvement of human wis-
dom and industry, would be brutish. So do they deal
IN BELIEVERS. ' 363
with lust, who mortify it indeed; not only when it is actually
vexing, enticing, and seducing; but in their retirements they
consider, this is our enemy, this is his way and progress,
these are his advantages, thus hath he prevailed, and thus
he will do, if not prevented. So David, * My sin is ever be-
fore me ;' Psal. li. 3.
(3.) To load it daily with all the things which shall after
be mentioned, that are grievous, killing, and destructive to
it, is the height of this contest ; such a one never thinks his
lust dead, because it is quiet, but labours still to give it new
wounds, new blows every day. So the apostle; Col. iii. 5.
Now whilst the soul is in this condition, whilst it is thus
dealing, it is certainly uppermost, sin is under the sword and
dying.
3. In success ; frequent success against any lust, is an-
other part and evidence of mortification. By success I un-
derstand not a mere disappointment of sin, that it be not
brought forth, nor accomplished ; but a victory over it, and
pursuit of it to a complete conquest : for instance, when the
heart finds sin at any time at work, seducing, forming ima-
ginations to make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts
thereof, it instantly apprehends sin, and brings it to the law
of God, and love of Christ; condemns it, follows it with ex-
ecution to the uttermost. Now, I say, when a man comes to
this state and condition, that lust is weakened in the root
and principle, that its motions and actions are fewer and
weaker than formerly, so that they are not able to hinder his
duty, nor interrupt his peace, when he can in a quiet, sedate
frame of spirit, find out, and fight against sin, and have suc-
cess against it, then sin is mortified in some considerable
measure ; and notwithstanding all its opposition, a man may
have peace with God all his days.
Unto these heads then do I refer the mortification aimed
at ; that is, of any one perplexing distemper, whereby the
general pravity and corruption of our nature attempts to
exert and put forth itself.
1. First, the weakening of its indwelling disposition,
whereby it inclines, entices, impels to evil, rebels, opposes,
fights against God, by the implanting, habitual residence,
and cherishing of a principle of grace, thM stands in direct
opposition to it, and is destructive of it, is the foundation of
364 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
it. So by the implanting and growth of humility is pride
weakened, passion by patience, uncleanness by purity ot"
mind and conscience, love of this world by heavenly-mind-
edness, which are graces of the Spirit, or the same habitual
grace variously acting itself by the Holy Ghost, according
to the variety or diversity of the objects about which it is
exercised ; as the other are several lusts, or the same natural
corruption variously acting itself according to the various
advantages and occasions that it meets withal.
2. The promptness, alacrity, vigour of the spirit, or new
man in contending with, cheerful fighting against the lust
spoken of, by all the ways, and with all the means that are
appointed thereunto, constantly using the succours provided
against its motions and actings, is a second thing hereunto
required.
3. Success unto several degrees attends these two. Now
this, if the distemper hath not an unconquerable advantage
from its natural situation, may possibly be to such a uni-
versal conquest, as the soul may never more sensibly feel its
opposition, and'shall however assuredly raise to an allowance
of peace to the conscience, according to the tenor of the
covenant of grace.
CHAP. VII.
General rules, without which no lust will be mortified. No mortijieation
unless a man he a believer. Dojigei's of attempting mortification of si7i btf
unregenerate persons. The duty »f unconverted persons, as to this bu-
siness of mortification, considered. The vanity of the Papists' attempts,
and rules for mortification thence discovered.
The ways and means, whereby a soul may proceed to the
mortification of any particular lust and sin, which Satan
takes advantage by, to disquiet and weaken him, comes next
under consideration.
Now there are some general considerations to be pre-
mised concerning some principles and foundations of this
work, without which no man in the world, be he never so
much raised by convictions, and resolved for the mortification
of any sin, can attain thereunto.
IN BELIEVERS. 385
General rules and principles, withaut which no sin will
he ever mortified, are these :
1. Unless a man be a believer, that is, one that is truly
ingrafted into Christ, he can never mortify any one sin; I
do not say, unless he know himself to be so, but unless in-
deed he be so.
Mortification is the work of believers ; R,om. viii. 13. ' If
ye through the Spirit,' &.c. Ye believers, to whom there is
no condemnation; ver. 1. They alone are exhorted to it.
Col. iii. 5. ' Mortify therefore your members that are upon
the earth.' Who should mortify? You who ' are risen with
Christ ;' ver. 1 . ' whose life is hid with Christ in God ; ver. 3.
who * shall appear with him in glory;' ver. 4. An unrege-
nerate man may do something like it, but the work itself, so
as it may be acceptable with God, he can never perform.
You know what a picture of it is drawn in some of the phi-
losophers, Seneca, Tully, Epictetus ; what affectionate dis-
courses they have of contempt of the world and self, of re-
gulating and conquering all exorbitant affections and pas-
sions. The lives of most of them manifested, that their
maxims differed as much from true mortification, as the sun
painted on a sign-post, from the sun in the firmament; they
had neither light nor heat. Their own Lucian sufficiently
manifests what they all were. There is no death of sin,
without the death of Christ. You know what attempts there
are made after it, by the Papists, in their vows, penances,
and satisfactions ; I dare say of them (I mean as many of
them as act upon the principles of their church, as they call
it) what Paul says of Israel in point of righteousness ; Rom.
ix. 31, 32. they have followed after mortification, but they
have not attained to it ; wherefore ? Because they ' seek it
not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law.' The
same is the state and condition of all amongst ourselves, who
in obedience to their convictions, and awakened consciences,
do attempt a relinquishment of sin ; they follow after it, but
they do not attain it.
It is true, it is, it will be required of every person what-
ever, that hears the law or gospel preached, that he mortify
sin ; it is his duty, but it is not his immediate duty. It is
his duty to do it, but to do it in God's way. If you require
your servant to pay so much money for you in such a place.
366 MORTIFICATION OF SIN'
but first to go and take it up in another; it is his duty to
pay the money appointed, and you will blame him if he do
it not; yet it was not his immediate duty ; he was first to
take it up, according to your direction. So it is in this
case : sin is to be mortified, but something is to be done in
the first place to enable us thereunto.
I have proved that it is the Spirit alone that can mortify
sin; he is promised to do it, and all other means without
him are empty and vain. How shall he then mortify sin,
that hath not the Spirit? A man may easier see without
eyes, speak without 'a tongue, than truly mortify one sin
without the Spirit. IVow how is he attained ? It is the
Spirit of Christ, and as the apostle says, 'If we have not
the Spirit of Christ, we are none of his ;' Rom. viii. 9. So, if
we are Christ's, have an interest in him, we have the Spirit,
and so alone have power for mortification. This the apo-
stle discourses at large ; Rom. viii. 8. ' So that they that are
in the flesh cannot please God.' It is the inference and con-
clusion he makes of his foregoing discourse about our na-
tural state and condition, and the enmity we have unto God
and his law therein. If we are in the flesh, if we have not the
Spirit, we cannot do any thing that should please God. But
what is our deliverance from this condition? ver. 9. 'But ye
are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit
of God dwell in you :' ye believers, that have the Spirit of
Christ, ye are not in the flesh. There is no way of deliver-
ance from the state and condition of being in the flesh, but
by the Spirit of Christ ; and what if this Spirit of Christ be
in you? why then you are mortified ; ver. 10. 'the body is
dead because of sin,' or unto it : mortification is carried on ;
the new man is quickened to righteousness. This the apo-
stle proves, ver. 11. from the union we have with Christ by
the Spirit, which will produce suitable operations in us, to
what it wrought in him. All attempts, then, for mortifi-
cation of any lust, without an interest in Christ, are vain.
Many men that are galled with, and for sin, the arrows of
Christ for conviction, by the preaching of the word, or some
affliction having been made sharp in their hearts, do vigour-
ously set themselves against tliis or that particular lust,
wherewith their consciences have been most disquieted, or
perplexed. But poor creatures ! they labour in the fire, and
IN BELIEVERS. 367
llieir work consumeth. When the Spirit of Christ comes to
this work, he will be as refiner's fire, and as fuller's soap,
and he will purge men as gold and as silver ; Mai. iii. 3. take
away their dross and tin, their filth and blood, as Isa. iv. 3.
but men must be gold and silver in the bottom, or else re-
fining will do them no good. The prophet gives us the sad
issue of wicked men's utmost attempts for mortification, by
what means soever that God affords them ; Jer. vi. 29, 30.
' The bellows are burnt, and the lead is consumed of the fire,
the founder melteth in vain, reprobate silver shall men call
them, because the Lord hath rejected them.' And what is
the reason hereof? ver. 28. they were brass and iron when
they were put into the furnace. Men may refine brass and
iron long enough, before they will be good silver.
I say, then, mortification is not the present business of
unregenerate men. God calls them not to it as yet ; con-
version is their work. The conversion of the whole soul,
not the mortification of this or that particular lust. You
would laugh at a man that you should see setting up a great
fabric, and never take any care for a foundation ; especially
if you should see him so foolish, as that having a thousand
experiences, that what he built one day fell down another,
he would yet continue in the same course. So it is with
convinced persons ; though they plainly see, that what
ground they get against sin one day, they lose another, yet
they will go on in the same road still, without inquiring
where the destructive flaw in their progress lies. When the
Jews, upon the conviction of their sin were cut to the heart ;
Acts ii. 37. and cried out 'What shall we do?' What doth
Peter direct them to do ? does he bid them go and mortify
their pride, wrath, malice, cruelty, and the like ? No, he
knew that was not their present work, but he calls them to
conversion and faith in Christ in general ; ver. 38. Let the
soul be first thoroughly converted, and then ' looking on
him whom they had pierced,' humiliation and mortification
will ensue. Thus when John came to preach repentance
and conversion, he said, 'The axe is now laid to the root of
the tree ;' Matt .iii. 19. The Pharisees had been laying heavy
burdens, imposing tedious duties, and rigid means of morti-
fication in fastings, washings, and the like ; all in vain :
says John, the doctrine of conversion is for you, the axe in
368 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
my hand is laid to the root. And our Saviour tells us, what
is to be doae in this case; says he, *Do men gather grapes
from thorns?' Matt. vi. 16. But suppose a thorn be well
pruned, and cut, and have pains taken with him ? Yea, but
he will never bear figs ; ver. 17, 18. it cannot be but every
tree will bring forth fruit accordinfj to its own kind. What
is then to be done ? he tells us. Matt. xii. 33. ' Make the tree
good, and his fruit will be good :' the root must be dealt
with, the nature of the tree changed, or no good fruit will
be brought forth.
This is that I aim at ; unless a man be regenerate, unless
he be a believer, all attempts that he can make for mortifi-
cation, be they never so specious and promising, all means
he can use, let him follow them with never so much dili-
gence, earnestness, watchfulness, and intention of mind and
spirit, are to no purpose. In vain shall he use many reme-
dies, he shall not be healed. Yea, there are sundry despe-
rate evils attending an endeavour in convinced persons, that
are no more but so, to perform this duty.
[1.] The mind and soul is taken up about that which is
not the man's proper business, and so he is diverted from
that which is so. God lays hold by his word and judgments
on some sin in him, galls his conscience, disquiets his heart,
deprives him of his rest ; now other diversions will not
serve his turn ; he must apply himself to the work before
him. The business in hand being to awake the whole man
unto a consideration of the state and condition wherein he
is, that he might be brought home to God ; instead hereof,
he sets himself to mortify the sin that galls him, which is
a pure issue of self-love, to be freed from his trouble; and
not at all to the work he is called unto ; and so is diverted
from it. Thus God tells us of Ephraim, when he spread his
net upon them, and brought them down as the fowls of
heaven, and chastised them ; Hos. vii. 12. caught them, en-
tangled them, convinced them that they could not escape ;
saith he of them, 'They return, but not to the Most High:'
they set themselves to a relinquishment of sin, but not in
that manner by universal conversion, as God called for it.
Thus are men diverted from coming unto God, by the most
glorious ways that they can fix upon to come to him by.
And this is one of the most common deceits whereby men
IN BELIEVERS. 369
ruin their own souls ; I wish that some whose trade it is to
daub with untempered morter in the things of God, did not
teach this deceit, and cause the people to err, by their igno-
rance; what do men do? What oft-times are they directed
unto, when their consciences are galled by sin and disquiet-
ment, from the Lord who hath laid hold upon them ? Is not
a relinquishment of the sin as to practice, that they are in
some fruits of it, perplexed withal, and making head against
it, the sum of v/hat they apply themselves unto, and is not
the gospel end of their convictions lost thereby? here men
abide and perish.
[2.] This duly being a thing good in itself, in its proper
place, a duty evidencing sincerity, bringing home peace to
the conscience, a man finding himself really engaged in it,
his mind and heart set against this or that sin, with purpose
and resolution to have no more to do with it, he is ready to
conclude, that his state and condition is good, and so to
delude his own soul. For,
1st. When his conscience hath been made sick with sin,
and he could find no rest; when he should go to the great
physician of souls, and get healing in his blood ; the man
by this engagement against sin, pacifies and quiets his con-
science, and sits down without going to Christ at all. Ah !
how many poor souls are thus deluded to eternity ! when
Ephraim saw his sickness, he sent to King Jareb ; Hos. v.
13. which kept him off from God. The whole bundle of
the Popish religion is made up of designs, and contrivances
to pacify conscience without Christ: all described by the
apostle ; Kom. x. 4.
2ndly. By this means men satisfy themselves that their
state and condition is good, seeing they do that which is a
work good in itself, and they do not do it to be seen. They
know they would have the work done in sincerity, and so
are hardened in a kind of self-righteousness.
[3.] When a man hath thus for a season been deluded,
and hath deceived his own soul, and finds in a long course
of life, that indeed his sin is not mortified, or if he hath
changed one, he hath gotten another, he begins at length to
think, that all contending is in vain, he shall never be able
to prevail. He is making a dam against water that in-
creaseth on him. Hereupon he gives over, as one despair-
VOL. VII. . 2b
370 MORTIFICATION OF SIX
ing of any success, and yields up himself to the power of
sin, and that habit of formality that he hath gotten.
And this is the usual issue with persons attempting the
mortification of sin, without an interest in Christ first ob-
tained. It deludes them, hardens them, destroys them. And
therefore we see that there are not usually more vile and
desperate sinners in the world, than such as having by
conviction been put on this course, have found it fruit-
less, and deserted it without a discovery of Christ. And
this is the substance of the religion and godliness of the
choicest formalists in the world ; and of all those, who in
the Roman synagogue are drawn to mortification, as they
drive Indians to baptism, or cattle to water. I sav then,
that mortification is the work of believers, and believers
only. To kill sin is the work of living men, where men are
dead, as all unbelievers, the best of them are dead, sin is
alive, and will live.
2. It is the work of faith ; the peculiar work of faith.
Now, if there be a work to be done that will be effected by
one only instrument, it is the greatest madness for any to
attempt the doing of it, that hath not that instrument. Now
it is faith that purifies the heart ; Acts xv. 9. or, as Peter
Speaks, ' we purify our souls in obeying the truth through
the Spirit;' 1 Pet. i. 22. And without it it will not be done.
What hath been spoken I suppose is sufficient to make
good my first general rule : be sure to get an interest in
Christ ; if you intend to mortify any sin without it, it will
never be done.
Oh. You will say, What then would you have unregene-
rate men, that are convinced of the evil of sin do ? Shall
they cease striving against sin, live dissolutely, give their
lusts their swing, and be as bad as the worst of men? This
were a way to set the whole world into confusion, to bring
all things into darkness, to set open the flood-gates of lust,
and lay the reins upon the necks of men to rush into all sin
with delight and greediness, like the horse into the battle.
Ans. 1. God forbid. It is to be looked on as a great issue
of the wisdom, goodness, and love of God, that by manifold
ways and means he is pleased to restrain the sons of men,
from running forth into that compass of excess and riot,
which the depravedness of their nature would carry them out
IN BELIEVERS. 371
unto with violence. By what way soever this is done, it is
an issue of the care, kindness, and goodness of God, with-
out which the whole earth would be a hell of sin and con-
fusion.
2. There is a peculiar convincing power in the word,
which God is oftentimes pleased to put forth to the wound-
ing, amazing, and, in some sort, humbling of sinners, though
they are never converted. And the word is to be preached
though it hath this end, yet not with this end. Let then the
word be preached, and the sins of men rebuked, lust will
be restrained, and some oppositions will be made against sin,
though that be not the effect aimed at.
3. Though this be the work of the word and Spirit, and
it be good in itself, yet it is not profitable nor available as to
the main end in them, in whom it is wrought ; they are still
in the gall of bitterness, and under the power of darkness.
4. Let men know it is their duty, but in its proper place ;
I take not men from mortification, but put them upon con-
version. He that shall call a man from mending a hole in
the wall of his house, to quench a fire that is consuming the
whole building, is not his enemy. Poor soul ! it is not thy
sore finger, but thy hectic fever that thou art to apply thy-
self to the consideration of. Thou settest thyself against a
particular sin, and dost not consider that thou art nothing
but sin.
Let me add this to them who are preachers of the word,
or intend through the good hand of God that employment.
It is their duty to plead with men about their sins, to lay
load on particular sins, but always remember, that it be
done with that which is the proper end of law and gospel :
that is, that they make use of the sin they speak against,
to the discovery of the state and condition wherein the
sinner is ; otherwise, haply they may work men to formality
and hypocrisy, but little of the true end of preaching the
gospel will be brought about. It will not avail to beat a
man off from his drunkenness, into a sober formality. A
skilful master of the assemblies lays his axe at the root, drives
still at the heart. To enveigh against particular sins of ig-
norant, unregenerate persons, such as the land is full of, is
a good work : but yet, though it may be done with great ef-
ficacy, vigour, and success, if this be all the effect of it, that
2 B 2
372 ■ MORTIFICATIOX OF SIN
they are set upon the most sedulous endeavours of morti-
fying their sins preached down, all that is done, is but like
the beating of an enemy in an open field, and driving him
into an impregnable castle, not to be prevailed against. Get
you at any time a sinner at the advantage, on the account
of any one sin whatever, have you any thing to take hold
of him by, bring it to his state and condition, drive it up to
the head, and there deal with him : to break men off parti-
cular sins, and not to break their hearts, is to deprive our-
selves of advantages of dealing with them.
And herein is the Roman mortification grievously pec-
cant ; they drive all sorts of persons to it, without the least
consideration, whether they have a principle for it or no.
Yea, they are so far from calling on men to believe, that
they may be able to mortify their lusts ; that they call men
to mortification, instead of believing. The truth is, they
neither know what it is to believe, nor what mortification
itself intends. Faith with them is but a general assent to
the doctrine taught in their church ; and mortification the
betaking of a man by a vow to some certain course of life,
wherein he denies himself something of the use of the things
of this world, not without a considerable compensation.
Such men know neither the Scriptures, nor the power of
God. Their boasting of their mortification, is but their
glorying in their shame. Some casuists among ourselves,
who, overlooking the necessity of regeneration, do avowedly
give this for a direction to all sorts of persons, that com-
plain of any sin or lust, that they should vow against it, at
least for a season, a month or so, seem to have a scantling
of light in the mystery of the gospel, much like that of Ni-
codemus, when he came first to Christ. They bid men vow
to abstain from their sin for a season. This commonly makes
their lust more impetuous. Perhaps with great perplexity
they keep their word : perhaps not, which increases their
guilt and torment. Is their sin at all mortified hereby? Do
they find a conquest over it? Is their condition changed,
though they attain a relinquishment of it ? Are they not
still in the gall of bitterness ? Is not this to put men to make
brick, if not without straw, yet, which is worse, without
strength? What promise hath any unregenerate man to
countenance him in this work ? What assistance for the
IN BELIEVERS. 373
performance of it ? Can sin be killed without an interest in
the death of Christ, or mortified without the Spirit ? If such
directions should prevail to change men's lives, as seldom
they do, yet they never reach to the change of their hearts or
conditions. They may make men self-justitiaries, or hypo-
crites, not Christians. It grieves me oft-times to see poor
souls, that have a zeal for God, and a desire of eternal wel-
fare, kept by such directors and directions, under a hard,
burdensome, outside worship and service of God, with many
specious endeavours for mortification, in an utter ignorance
of the righteousness of Christ, and unacquaiiitedness with
his Spirit, all their days. Persons and things of this kind,
I know too many. If ever God shine into their hearts, to
give them the knowledge of his glory in the face of his Son
Jesus Christ, they will see the folly of their present way.
CHAP. VIII.
The second general rule proposed. Without universal sincerity for the mor-
tifying of every lust, uo lust will be mortified. Partial mortification al-
ways from a corrupt pnnciple. Perplexity of temptation from a lust,
oftentimes a chastening for other negligences.
The second principle, which to this purpose I shall propose,
is this :
Without sincerity and diligence in a universality of obe-
dience, there is no mortification of any one perplexing lust
to be obtained.
The other was to the person, this to the thing itself. I
shall a little explain this position.
A man finds any lust to bring him into the condition for-
merly described, it is powerful, strong, tumultuating, leads
captive, vexes, disquiets, takes away peace ; he is not able
to bear it, wherefore he sets himself against it, prays against
it, groans under it, sighs to be delivered ; but in the mean-
time, perhaps, in other duties, in constant communion with
God, in reading, prayer, and meditation, in other ways that
are not of the same kind with the lust wherewith he is trou-
bled, he is loose and negligent ; let not that man think that
ever he shall arrive to the mortification of the lust he is per-
374 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
plexed withal. This is a condition that not seldom befalls
men in their pilgrimage. The Israelites, under a sense of
their sin drew nigh to God with much diligence and ear-
nestness, with fasting and prayer ; Isa. Iviii. many expres-
sions are made of their earnestness in the work;ver, 2. 'They
seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, they ask of
me the ordinances of justice, they take delight in approach-
ing unto God.' But God rejects all ; their fast is a remedy
that will not heal them, and the reason given of it, ver. 5
— 7, is, because they were particular in this duty. They
attended diligently to that, but in others were negligent and
careless. He that hath a running sore (it is the Scripture
expression) upon him, arising from an ill habit of body, con-
tracted by intemperance and ill diet ; let him apply himself
with what diligence and skill he can, to the cure of his sore,
if he leave the general habit of his body under distempers,
his labour and travail will be in vain. So will his attempts
be, that shall endeavour to stop a bloody issue of sin and
filth in his soul, and is not equally careful of his universal
spiritual temperature and constitution. For,
1. This kind of endeavour for mortification, proceeds
from a corrupt principle, ground, and foundation, so that it
will never proceed to a good issue. The true and accepta-
ble principles of mortification shall be afterward insisted on.
Hatred of sin, as sin, not only as galling or disquieting, a
sense of the love of Christ in the cross, lies at the bottom
of all true spiritual mortification. Now it is certain, that
that which I speak of, proceeds from self-love. Thou set-
test thyself with all diligence and earnestness to mortify
such a lust or sin ; what is the reason of it ? It disquiets
thee, it hath taken away thy peace, it fills thy heart with
sorrow, and trouble, and fear ; thou hast no rest because of
it; yea, but friend, thou hast neglected prayer or reading,
thou hast been vain and loose in thy conversation in other
things, that have not been of the same nature with that lust
wherewith thou art perplexed ; these are no less sins and
evils, than those under which thou groanest; Jesus Christ
bled for them also. Why dost thou not set thyself against
them also? If thou hatest sin as sin, every evil way, thou
wouldst be no less watchful against every thing that grieves
and disquiets the Spirit of God, than against that which
IN BELIEVERS. 375
gtieves and disquiets thine own soul. It is evident that thou
contendest against sin, merely because of thy own trouble by
it. Would thy conscience be quiet under it, thou wouldst
let it alone. Did it not disquiet thee, it should not be dis-
quieted by thee. Now, canst thou think that God will set
in with such hypocritical endeavours, that ever his Spirit
will bear witness to the treachery and falsehood of thy spi-
rit? Dost thou think he will ease thee of that which per-
plexeth thee, that thou mayest be at liberty to that which
no less grieves him ? No, says God, here is one, if he could
be rid of this lust I should never hear of him more ; let him
wrestle with this or he is lost. Let not any man think to
do his own work, that will not do God's. God's work con-
sists in universal obedience ; to be freed of the present per-
plexity is their own only. Hence is that of the apostle,
2 Cor. vii. 1. * Cleanse yourselves from all pollution of flesh
and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.' If
we will do any thing, we must do all things. So then it is
not only an intense opposition to this or that peculiar lust,
but a universal humble frame and temper of heart, with
wtach fulness over every evil, and for the performance of
every duty that is accepted.
2. How knowest thou but that God hath suffered the lust
wherewith thou hast been perplexed, to get strength in thee,
and power over thee, to chasten thee for thy other negli-
gences, and common lukewarmness in walking before him;
at least to awaken thee to the consideration of thy ways,
that thou mayest make a thorough work and change in thy
course of walking with him ?
The rage and predominancy of a particular lust is com-
monly the fruit and issue of a careless, negligent course in
general ; and that upon a double account.
(1.) As its natural effects, if I may so say. Lust, as I
shewed, in general, lies in the heart of every one, even the
the best, whilst he lives ; and think not that the Scripture
speaks in vain, that it is subtle, cunning, crafty, that it se-
duces, entices, fights, rebels. Whilst a man keeps a dili-
gent watch over his heart, its root and fountain ; whilst above
all keepings, he keeps his heart, whence are the issues of
life and death, lust withers, and dies in it. But if through
negligence it makes an eruptioji any particular way, gets a
376 MORTIFICATION OF SIX
passage to the thoughts by the affections, and from them,
and by them, perhaps breaks out into open sin in the
conversation ; the strength of it bears that way it hath
found out, and that way mainly it urgeth, until, having got
a passage, it then vexes and disquiets, and is not easily to
be restrained : thus perhaps a man may be put to wrestle all
his days in sorrow, with that, which by a strict and univer-
sal watch might easily have been prevented.
(2.) As I said, God oftentimes suffers it to chasten our
other negligences : for as with wicked men, he gives them
up to one sin, as the judgment of another, a greater for the
punishment of a less, or one that will hold them more firmly
and securely, for that which they might have possibly obtain-
ed a deliverance from f so even with his own, he may, he doth,
leave them sometimes, to some vexatious distempers, either
to prevent or cure some other evil. So was the messenger
of Satan let loose on Paul, that he * might not be lifted up
through the abundance of spiritual revelation.''' Was it not
a correction to Peter's vain confidence, that he was left to
deny his master? Now if this be the state and condition of
lust in its prevalency, that God oftentimes suffers it so to
prevail, at least to admonish us, and to humble us, perhaps
to chasten and correct us for our general loose and careless
walking, is it possible that the effect should be removed,
and the cause continued ; that the particular lust should
be mortified, and the general course be unreformed ? He
then that would really, thoroughly, and acceptably mor-
tify any disquieting lust, let him take care to be equally di-
ligent in all parts of obedience, and know that every lust,
every omission of duty, is burdensome to God, though but
one, is so to him.'= Whilst there abides a treachery in the
heart to indulge to any negligence in not pressing univer-
sally to all perfection in obedience, the soul is weak, as not
giving faith its whole work ; and selfish, as considering more
the trouble of sin, than the filth and guilt of it, and lives
under a constant provocation of God, so that it may not ex-
pect any comfortable issue in any spiritual duty that it doth
undertake, much less in this under consideration, which re-
quires another principle and frame of spirit for its occom-
plishment.
» Rom. i. 36. >> 2 Cor. xii. 7. * Isa. .\Iiii.31.
IN BELIEVERS. 377
CHAP. IX.
Particular directions in relation to the foregoing case proposed. First ,
Consider the dangerous symptoms of any lust. 1. Inveterateness. 2. Peace
obtained under it; the several ways whereby that is done. 3. Frequency
of success in its seductions. 4. The soul's fighting against it, with argu-
ments only taken from the enent. 5. Its being attended with judiciary
hardness. Q. Its withstanding particular dealings from God. The state
of persons in whom these things are found.
The foregoing general rules being supposed, particular di-
rections to the soul, for its guidance under the sense of a
disquieting lust or distemper, being the main thing I aim at,
come next to be proposed. Now of these some are previous
and preparatory, and in some of them the work itself is con-
tained. Of the first sort are these ensuing.
1. Consider what dangerous symptoms thy lust hath
attending or accompanying it. Whether it hath any deadly
mark on it or no ; if it hath, extraordinary remedies are to
be used ; an ordinary course of mortification v/ill not do it.
You will say, what are these dangerous marks and symp-
toms, the desperate attendances of an indwelling lust that
you intend? Some of them I shall name.
(1.) Inveterateness; if it hath lain long corrupting in thy
heart, if thou hast suffered it to abide in power and pre-
valency, without attempting vigorously the killing of it, and
the healing of the wounds thou hast received by it, for some
long season, thy distemper is dangerous. Hast thou permit-
ted worldliness, ambition, greediness of study, to eat up other
duties; the duties wherein thou oughtest to hold constant
communion with God, for some long season ? or uncleanness
to defile thy heart, with vain and foolish and wicked imagina-
tions for many days? Thy lust hath a dangerous symptom.
So was the case with David, Psal. xxxviii. 5. ' My wounds
stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.' When a
lust hath lain long in the heart, corrupting, festering, canker-
ing, it brings the soul to awoful condition. In such a case
an ordinary course of humiliation will not do the work:
whatever it be, it will by this means insinuate itself more or
less into all the faculties of tiie soul, and habituate the affec-
tions to its company and society ; it grows familiar to the
378 -MORTIFICATION OF SIN
mind and conscience, that they do not startle at it as a
strange thing, but are bold with it as that which they are
wonted unto ; yea, it will get such advantage by this means,
as oftentimes to exert and put forth itself, without having
any notice taken of it at all ; as it seems to have been with
Joseph in his swearing by the life of Pharaoh. Unless some
extraordinary course be taken, such a person hath no
ground in the world to expect that his latter end shall be
peace. For,
[1.] How will he be able to distinguish between the long
abode of an unmortified lust, and the dominion of sin, which
cannot befall a regenerate person?
[2.] How can he promise himself, that it shall ever be
otherwise with him, or that his lust will cease tumultuating
and seducing, when he sees it fixed and abiding, and hath
done so for many days, and hath gone through variety of
conditions with him? It may be it hath tried mercies and
afflictions, and those possibly so remarkable, that the soul
could not avoid the taking special notice of them ; it may be
it hath weathered out many a storm ; and passed under much
variety of gifts in the administration of the word ; and will
it prove an easy thing, to dislodge an inmate pleading a little
by prescription ? Old neglected wounds are often mortal,
always dangerous. Indwelling distempers grow rusty and
stubborn, by continuance in ease and quiet. Lust is such
an inmate, as if it can plead time and some prescription, will
not easily be ejected. As it never dies of itself, so if it be
not daily killed, it will always gather strength.
(2.) Secret pleas of the heart for the countenancing of
itself, and keeping up its peace, notwithstanding the abiding
of a lust, without a vigorous gospel attempt for its mortifi-
cation, is another dangerous symptom of a deadly distemper
in the heart. Now there be several ways whereby this may
be done ; I shall name some of them. As,
[1.] When upon thoughts, perplexing thoughts about sin,
instead of applying himself to the destruction of it, a man
searches his heart to see wliat evidences he can find of a
good condition, notwithstanding that sin and lust, so that
it may go well with him.
For a man to gather up his experiences of God, to call
them to mind, to collect them, consider, try, improve them.
IN BELIEVERS. 379
is an excellent thing ; a duty practised by all the saints ;
commended in the Old Testament and the ^New. This was
David's work, when he * communed with his own heart/ and
called to remembrance the former loving-kindness of the
Lord." This is the duty that Paul sets us to practise ; 2 Cor.
xiii. 5. And as it is in itself excellent, so it hath beauty
added to it, by a proper season, a time of trial, or tempta-
tion, or disquietness of the heart about sin, is a picture of
silver to set off this golden apple, as Solomon speaks ; but
now to do it, for this end, to satisfy conscience, which cries,
and calls for another purpose, is a desperate device of a
heart in love with sin. When a man's conscience shall deal
with him, when God shall rebuke him for the sinful distem-
per of his heart, if he, instead of applying himself to get
that sin pardoned in the blood of Christ and mortified by
his Spirit, shall relieve himself by any such other evidences
as he hath, or thinks himself to have, and so disentangle
himself from under the yoke, that God was putting on his
neck ; his condition is very dangerous, his wound hardly
curable. Thus the Jews, under the gallings of their own
consciences, and the convincing preachings of our Saviour,
supported themselves with this, that they were Abraham's
children, and on that account accepted with God, and so
countenanced themselves in all abominable wickedness, to
their utter ruin.
This is in some degree, a blessing of a man's self, and
saying that upon one account or other he shall have peace,
* although he adds drunkenness to thirst ;' love of sin, un-
dervaluation of peace, and of all tastes of love from God, are
enwrapped in such a frame : such a one plainly shews, that
if he can but keep up hope of escaping the * wrath for to
come,' he can be well content, to be unfruitful in the world,
at any distance from God, that is not final separation. What
is to be expected from such a heart?
[2.] By applying grace and mercy to an unmortified sin,
or one not sincerely endeavoured to be mortified, is this de-
ceit carried on. This is a sign of a heart greatly entangled
with the love of sin. When a man hath secret thoughts in
his heart, not unlike those of Naaman, about his worshipping
in the house of Rimmon ;'' in all other things I will walk with
• Psal. Ixxvii. 6—9. •> 2 Kings v. 18,
380 MORTIFICATION OF SIN^
God, but in this thing, God be merciful unto me ; his con-
dition is sad. Itis true, indeed, a resolution to this purjjose,
to indulge a man's self in any sin on the account of mercy,
seems to be, and doubtless in any course, is altogether in-
consistent with Christian sincerity, and is a badge of a hy-
pocrite, and is the ' turning of the grace of God into wanton-
ness;'"^ yet I doubt not, but through the craft of Satan, and
their own remaining unbelief, the children of God may them-
selves sometimes be ensnared with this deceit of sin ; or else
Paul would never have so cautioned them against it, as he
doth; Rom. vi. 1, 2. Yea, indeed, there is nothing more
natural, than for fleshly reasonings to grow high and strong
upon this account. The flesh would feign be indulged unto
upon the account of grace : and every word that is spoken
of mercy, it stands ready to catch at, and to pervert it, to its
own corrupt aims and purposes. To apply mercy then to a
sin not vigorously mortified, is to fulfil the end of the flesh
upon the gospel.
These and many other ways and wiles, a deceitful heart
will sometimes make use of, to countenance itself in its
abominations. Now, when a man with his sin is in this con-
dition, that there is a secret liking of the sin prevalent in
his heart, and though his will be not wholly set upon it, yet
he hath an imperfect velleity towards it, he would practise
it, were it not for such and such considerations, and here-
upon relieves himself other ways than by the mortification
and pardon of it in the blood of Christ; that man's wounds
stink and are corrupt, and he will without speedy deliver-
ance be at the door of death.
(3.) Frequency of success in sin's seduction, in obtaining
the prevailing consent of the will unto it, is another dan-
gerous symptom. This is that, I mean, when the sin spoken
of gets the consent of the will, with some delight, though it
be not actually outwardly perpetrated, yet it hath success.
A man may not be able upon outward considerations, to go
alono" with sin, to that which James calls the finishing of
it,"^ as to the outward acts of sin, when yet the will of sinning
may be actually obtained, then hath it, I say, success. Now
if any lust be able thus far to prevail in the soul of any man,
as his condition may possibly be very bad, and himself be
« Judc 1. •* Jamts i. 11, 15,
IN BELIEVERS. 381
imregenerate, so it cannot possibly be very good, but danger-
ous ; and it is all one upon the matter, whether this be done
by the choice of the will, or by inadvertency. For that in-
advertency itself is in a manner chosen. When we are in-
advertent and negligent, where we are bound to watchful-
ness and carefulness, that inadvertency doth not take off
from the voluntariness of what we do thereupon ; for al-
though men do not choose and resolve to be negligent and
inadvertent, yet if they choose the things that will make
them so, they choose inadvertency itself, as a thing may be
chosen in its cause.
And let not men think that the evil of their hearts is in
any measure extenuated, because they seem for the most
part to be surprised into that consent which they seem to
give unto it; for it is negligence of their duty in watching
over their hearts, that betrays them into that surprisal.
(4.) When a m.an fighteth against his sin only with argu-
ments from the issue, or the punishment due unto it ; this
is a sign, that sin hath taken great possession of the will,
and that in the heart there is a superfluity of naughtiness.
Such a man as opposes nothing to the seduction of sin and
lust in his heart, but fear of shame among men, or hell from
God, is sufficiently resolved to do the sin, if there were no
punishment attending it, which, what it differs from living
in the practice of sin, I know not. Those who are Christ's,
and are acted in their obedience upon gospel principles, have
the death of Christ, the love of God, the detestable nature
of sin, the preciousness of communion with God, a deep
grounded abhorrency of sin, as sin, to oppose to any se-
duction of sin ; to all the workings, strivings, fightings of
lust in their hearts. So did Joseph, ' How shall I do this
great evii,'saithhe, 'and sin against the Lord?' my good and
gracious God.^ And Paul, * The love of Christ constrains
us;^ and having received these promises, let us cleanse
ourselves from all pollution, of flesh and spirit;' 2 Cor. vii. 1.
But now if a man be so under the power of his lust, that he
hath nothing but law to oppose it withal, if he cannot fight
against it with gospel weapons, but deals with it altogether
with hell and judgment, which are the proper arms of the
law, it is most evident, that sin hath possessed itself of his
e Gen. xxxix. 9. f 2 Cor. v. 14.
382 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
will and affections, to a very great prevalency and con-
quest.
Such a person hath cast off, as to the particular spoken
of, the conduct of renewing grace, and is kept from ruin only
by restraining grace : and so far is he fallen from grace, and
returned under the power of the law ; and can it be thought
that this is not a great provocation to Christ, that men should
cast off his easy gentle yoke and rule, and cast themselves
under the iron yoke of the law, merely out of indulgence
unto their lusts?
Try thyself by this also, when thou art by sin driven to make
a stand, so that thou must either serve it, and rush at the
command of it into folly, like the horse into the battle, or
make head against it to suppress it ; what dost thou say to
thy soul? what dost thou expostulate with thyself? Is this
all, hell will be the end of this course, vengeance will meet
with me, and find me out? It is time for thee to look about
thee, evil lies at the door. Paul's main argument to evince
that sin shall not have dominion over believers, is, that they
* are not under the law, but under grace ;' Rom. vi. 14. If
thy contendings against sin be all on legal accounts, from
leoal principles and motives, what assurance canst thou at-
tain unto, that sin shall not have dominion over thee, which
will be thy ruin ?
Yea know that this reserve will not long hold out : if
thy lust hath driven thee from stronger gospel forts, it will
speedily prevail against this also ; do not suppose that such
considerations will deliver thee, when thou hast voluntarily
given up to thine enemy those helps and means of preserva-
tion which have a thousand times their strengh ; rest as-
suredly in this, that unless thou recover thyself with speed,
from this condition, the thing that thou fearest will come
upon thee ; what gospel principles do not, legal motives
cannot do.
(5.) When it is probable that there is, or may be somewhat
of judiciary hardness, or at least of chastening punishment in
thy lust as disquieting. This is another dangerous symptom,
that God doth sometimes leave even those of his own, under
the perplexing power, at least of some lust or sin, to correct
them for furmer sins, negligence, and folly, I no way doubt.
Hence was that complaint of the church, ' Why hast thou
IN BELIEVERS. 383
hardened us from the fear of thy name?' Isa. Ixiii. 17.
That this is his way of dealing with unregenerate men, no
man questions. But how shall a man know whether there be
any thing of God's chastening hand, in his being left to the
disquietment of his distemper ? Ans. Examine thy heart and
ways, what was the state and condition of thy soul before
thou fellest into the entanglements of that sin, which now
thou so complainest of? Hadst thou been negligent in
duties? Hadst thou lived inordinately to thyself? Is there
the guilt of any great sin lying upon thee unrepented of?
A new sin may be permitted, as well as a new affliction sent
to bring an old sin to remembrance.
Hast thou received any eminent mercy, protection, de-
liverance, which thou didst not improve, in a due manner,
nor wast thankful for? or hast been exercised with any af-
fliction, without labouring for the appointed end of it? or
hast thou been wanting to the opportunities of glorifying
God in thy generation, which in his good providence he had
graciously afforded unto thee ? or hast thou conformed thy-
self unto the world and the men of it, through the abound-
ing of temptations in the days wherein thou livest?
If thou findest this to have been thy state, awake, call
upon God, thou art fast asleep in a storm of anger round
about thee.
(6.) When thy lust hath already withstood particular
dealings from God against it. This condition is described,
Isa. Ivii. 17. 'For the iniquity of his covetousness I was
wroth, and smote him, I hid me and was wroth, and he
went on frowardly in the way of his heart. God had dealt
with them about their prevailing lust, and that several ways,
by affliction and desertion, but they held out against all.
This is a sad condition, which nothing but mere sovereign
grace (as God expresses it in the next verse) can relieve a
man in, and which no man ought to promise himself, or
bear himself upon. God oftentimes in his providential
dispensations meets with a man, and speaks particularly to
the evil of his heart, as he did to Joseph's brethren in their
selling of him into Egypt. This makes the man reflect on
his sin, and judge himself in particular for it. God makes
it to be the voice of the danger, affliction, trouble, sickness,
that he is in, or under. Sometimes in reading of the vi'ord.
384 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
God makes a man stay on something that cuts him to the
heart, and shakes him as to his present condition. More
frequently in the hearing of the word preached, his great
ordinance for conviction, conversion, and edification, doth
he meet with men. God often hews men by the sword of
his word in that ordinance ; strikes directly on their bosom
beloved lust; startles the sinner, makes him engage into the
mortification and relinquishment of the evil of his heart.
Now if his lust have taken such hold on him, as to enforce
him to break these bonds of the Lord, and to cast these
cords from him ; if it overcomes these convictions, and gets
again into its old posture; if it can cure the wounds it so
receives, that soul is in a sad condition.
Unspeakable are the evils which attend such a frame of
heart: every particular warning to a man in such an estate
is an inestimable mercy ; how then doth he despise God in
them, who holds out against them ; and what infinite pa-
tience is this in God, that he doth not cast off such a one,
and swear in his wu^ath, that he shall never enter into his
rest.
These and many other evidences are there of a lust that
is dangerous, if not mortal. As our Saviour said of the evil
spirit, * This kind, goes not out but by fasting and prayer;'
so say I, of lusts of this kind ; an ordinary course of morti-
fication will not do it, extraordinary ways must be fixed on.
This is the fifth particular direction ; consider whether
the lust or sin, you are contending with, hath any of these
dangerous symptoms attending of it. Before I proceed, I
must give one caution by the way, lest any be deceived by
what hath been spoken. Whereas, I say, the things and
evils above-mentioned may befall true believers, let not any
that finds the same things in himself, thence or from thence
conclude, that he is a true believer. These are the evils that
believers may fall into, and be ensnared withal, not the
things that constitute a believer. A man may as well con-
clude that he is a believer, because he is an adulterer ; be-
cause David that was so, fell into adultery ; as conclude it
from the signs foregoing ; which are the evils of sin and
Satan in the hearts of believers. The 7th chapter of the
Romans contains the description of a regenerate man. He
that shall comsider what is spoken of his dark side, of his
IN BELIEVERS. 385
unregenerate part, of the indwelling power and violence of
sin remaining in him, and because he finds the like in himself,
conclude that he is a regenerate man, will be deceived in
his reckoning. It is all one as if you should argue, a wise
man may be sick and wounded, yea, do some things foolishly,
therefore every one, who is sick and wounded, and does
things foolishly is a wise man. Or as if a silly deformed
creature hearing one speaking of a beautiful person, should
say that he had a mark or a scar that much disfigured him,
should conclude that because he hath himself scars, and
moles, and warts, that he also is beautiful. If you will have
evidences of your being believers, it must be from those
things that constitute men believers. He that hath these
things in himself, may safely conclude, if I am a believei', I
am a most miserable one. But that any man is so, he must
look for other evidences, if he will have peace.
CHAP. X.
The second particular direction. Get a clear sense of , 1. The guilt of
the sin perplexing. Considerations for help therein proposed. 2. The
da^iger manifold. {\.) Hardening. {2.) Temporal correction, (3.) Loss
of peace and strength. (4.) Eternal destruction. Rules for this ma-
nagement of the consideration. 3. The evil of it. (1.) In grieving
the Spirit. (2.) Wowiding the new creature.
The second direction is this: Get a clear and abiding sense
upon thy mind and conscience of the guilt, danger, and evil,
of that sin, wherewith thou art perplexed.
1. Of the guilt of it. It is one of the deceits of a pre-
vailing lust, to extenuate its own guilt. Is it not a little
one ? ' When I go and bow myself in the house of Rimmon,
God be merciful to me in this thing.' Though this be bad,
yet it is not so bad, as such and such an evil ; others of the
people of God have had such a frame ; yea, what dreadful
actual sins have some of them fallen into. Innumerable
ways there are, whereby sin diverts the mind from a right
and due apprehension of its guilt. Its noisome exhalations
darken the mind, that it cannot make a right judgment of
things. Perplexings reasonings, extenuating promises, tu-
VOL. VII. 2 c
38G MORTll-lCA'J I0\ OF SIX
multuating desires, treacherous purposes of reliuquishment,
hopes of mercy ; all have their share in disturbing the mind,
in its consideration of the guilt of a prevailing lust. The
prophet tells us, that lust will do thus wholly, when it comes
to the height; Hos. iv. 11. ' Whoredom and wine, and new
wine take away the heart;' the heart, i. e. the understanding,
as it is often used in the Scripture. And as they accom-
plish this work to the height in unregenerate persons, so
in part in regenerate also. Solomon tells you of him who
was enticed by the lewd woman, that he was among the
simple ones, he was ' a young man void of understanding ;'
Prov, vii. 7. And wherein did his folly appear? Why, says
he, in the 23d ver. ' He knew not that it was for his life ;'
he considered not the guilt of the evil that he was involved
in. And the Lord rendering a reason why his dealings with
Ephraim took no better effect, gives this account; 'Ephraim
is like a silly dove, without heart ;' Hos. vii. 11, had no un-
derstanding of his own miserable condition. Had it been
possible that David should have lain so long in the guilt of
of that abominable sin, but that he had innumerable corrupt
reasonings, hindering him from taking a clear view of its
ugliness and guilt in the glass of the law ; this made the
prophet that was sent for his awaking, in his dealings with
him, to shut up all subterfuges and pretences, by his para-
ble ; that so he might fall fully under a sense of the guilt of
it. This is the proper issue of lust in the heart, it darkens the
mind that it shall not judge aright of its guilt, and many
other ways it hath for its own extenuation, that I shall not
now insist on.
Let this then be the first care of him that w^ould mortify
sin, to fix a right judgment of its guilt in his mind. To
which end take these considerations to thy assistance.
(1.) Though the power of sin be weakened by inherent
grace, in them that have it, that sin shall not have dominion
over them, as it hath over others ; yet the guilt of sin that
doth yet abide and remain, is aggravated and heightened by
it; Horn. vi. 1,2. *What shall we say then? Shall we con-
tinue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall
we that are dead to sin live any longer therein V How shall
we that are dead ; the emphasis is on the word *we.' How
shall we do it, who, as he afterward describes it, have received
IN BELIEVEllS. 387
grace from Christ to the contrary ? We doubtless are more
evil than any ; if we do it. I shall not insist on the special
aggravations of the sins of such persons ; how they sin
against more love, mercy, grace, assistance, relief, means,
and deliverances, than others. But let this consideration
abide in thy mind; there is inconceivably more evil and
guilt in the evil of thy heart, that doth remain, than there
would be in so much sin, if thou hadst no grace at all. Ob-
serve,
(2.) That as God sees abundance of beauty and excel-
lency in the desires of the heart of his servants, more than
in any the most glorious works of other men, yea, more than
in most of their own outward performances, which have a
greater mixture of sin, than the desires and pantings of
grace in the heart have, so God sees a great deal of evil in
the working of lust in their hearts, yea, and more than in the
open, notorious acts of wicked men, or in many outward
sins whereinto the saints may fall, seeing against them
there is more opposition made, and more humiliation gene-
rally follows them. Thus Christ, dealing with his decaying
children, goes to the root with them ; lays aside their pro-
fession; Rev. iii. 15. I know thee, thou art quite another
thing than thou professest, and this makes thee abominable.
So then ; let these things and the like considerations
iead thee to a clear sense of the guilt of thy indwelling lust,
that there may be no room in thy heart for extenuating, or
excusing thoughts, whereby sin insensibly will get strength
and prevail.
2. Consider the danger of it, which is manifold.
(1.) Of being hardened by its deceitfulness; this the apo-
stle sorely charges on the Hebrews, chap. iii. 12, 13. 'Take
heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of
unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one
another daily, while it is called To-day; lest any of you be
hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.' Take heed,
saith he, use all means, consider your temptations, watch
diligently, there is a treachery, a deceit in sin, that tends to
the hardening of your hearts from the fear of God. The
hardening here mentioned is to the utmost ; utter obdura
tion, sin tends to it, and every distemper and lust will make
at least some progress towards it. Thou that wast tender,
2 c 2
388 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
and didst use to melt under the word, under afflictions, wilt
grow as some have profanely spoken, sermon proof, and
sickness proof; thou that didst tremble at the presence of
God, thoughts of death, and appearance before him, when
thou hadst more assurance of his love than now thou hast,
shalt have a stoutness upon thy spirit, not to be moved by
these things. Thy soul and thy sin shall be spoken of, and
spoken to, and thou shalt not be at all concerned ; but shalt
be able to pass over duties, praying, hearing, reading, and
thy heart not in the least affected. Sin will grow a light
thing to thee; thou wilt pass it by as a thing of nought ;
this it will grow to, and what will be the end of such a con-
dition? can a sadder thing befall thee? is it not enough to
make any heart to tremble to think of being brought into
that estate, wherein he should have slight thoughts of sin?
slight thoughts of grace, of mercy, of the blood of Christ, of
the law, heaven and hell, come all in at the same season :
take heed, this is that thy lust is working towards; the
hardening of the heart, searing of the conscience, blinding of
the mind, stupifying of the affections, and deceiving of the
whole soul.
(2.) The danger of some great temporal correction, which
the Scripture calls vengeance, judgment, and punishment ;
Psal. Ixxxix. 30 — 33. Though God should not utterly cast
thee off for this abomination that lies in thy heart, yet he
will visit thee with the rod ; though he pardon and forgive,
he will take vengeance of thy inventions. O remember
David and all his troubles ; look on him flying into the
wilderness, and consider the hand of God upon him. Is it
nothing to thee, that God should kill thy child in anger,
ruin thy estate in anger, break thy bones in anger, suffer
thee to be a scandal and reproach in anger, kill thee, de-
stroy thee, make thee lie down in darkness, in anger ? Is it
nothing that he should punish, ruin, and undo others for thy
sake ? Let me not be mistaken I I do not mean, that God
doth send all these things always on his in anger; God for-
bid. But this, I say, that when he doth so deal with thee,
and thy conscience bears witness with him, what thy pro-
vocations have been, thou wilt find his dealings full of bit-
terness to thy soul. If thou fearest not these things, I fear
thou art under hardness.
IN BELIEVERS. 389
. (3.) Loss of peace and strength all a man's days. To
have peace with God, to have strength to walk before God,
is the sum of the great promises of the covenant of grace.
In these things is the life of our souls. Without them in
some comfortable measure, to live, is to die. What good
will our lives do us, if we see not the face of God sometimes
in peace ? If we have not some strength to walk with him?
Now both these will an unmortified lust certainly deprive
the souls of men of. This case is so evident in David, as
that nothing can be more clear. How often doth he com-
plain that his bones were broken, his soul disquieted, his
wounds grievous on this account ? Take other instances ;
Isa. Ivii. 18. ' For the iniquity of his covetousness I was
wrath, and hid myself.' What peace, I pray, is there to a
soul while God hides himself; or strength whilst he smites?
Hos. V. 15. 'I will go and return to my place, until they
acknowledge their offence, and seek ray face.' I will leave
them, hide my face, and what will become of their peace
and strength? If ever then thou hast enjoyed peace with
God, if ever his terrors have made thee afraid, if ever thou
hast had strength to walk with him, or ever hast mourned
in thy prayer, and been troubled because of thy weakness,
think of this danger that hangs over thy head. It is per-
haps but a little while and thou shalt see the face of God
in peace no more. Perhaps by to-morrow thou shalt not be
able to pray, read, hear, or perform any duties with the
least cheerfulness, hfe, or vigour ; and possibly thou mayest
never see a quiet hour whilst thou livest ; that thou mayest
carry about thee broken bones, full of pain and terror all
the days of thy life ; yea, perhaps God will shoot his arrows
at thee, and fill thee with anguish and disquietness, with
fears and perplexities ; make thee a terror and an astonish-
ment to thyself and others, shew thee hell and wrath every
moment; frighten and scare thee with sad apprehensions of
his hatred, so that thy sore shall run in the night season,
and thy soul shall refuse comfort ; so that thou shalt wish
death rather than life, yea, thy soul may choose strangling.
Consider this a little, though God should not utterly de-
stroy thee, yet he might cast thee into this condition,
wherein thou shalt have quick and living apprehensions of
thy destruction. Wont thy heart to thoughts hereof. Let
390 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
it know what is like to be the issue of its state, leave not
this consideration, until thou hast made thy soul to tremble
within thee.
(4.) There is the danger of eternal destruction.
For the due management of this consideration, observe,
[1.] That there is such a connexion between a continu-
ance in sin, and eternal destruction, that though God does
resolve to deliver some from a continuance in sin, that they
may not be destroyed, yet he will deliver none from destruc-
tion, that continue in sin. So that whilst any one lies un-
der an abiding power of sin, the threats of destruction and
everlasting separation from God are to be held out to him;
so Heb. iii. 12. to which add chap. x. 38. This is the rule
of God's proceeding. If any man depart from him, ' draw
back through unbelief, God's soul hath no pleasure in him,
that is, his indignation shall pursue him to destruction ; so
evidently. Gal. vi. 8.
[2.] That he who is so entangled as above described under
the power of any corruption, can have at that present no clear
prevailing evidence of his interest in the covenant, by the
efficacy whereof he may be delivered from fear of destruc-
tion. So that destruction from the Lord may justly be a terror
to him; and he may, he ought to look upon it, as that which
will be the end of his course and ways. ' There is no con-
demnation to them that are in Christ Jesus ;' Rom. viii. 1.
true; but who shall have the comfort of this assertion?
Who may assume it to himself? 'They that walk after the
Spirit, and not after the flesh.' But you will say, Is not
this to persuade men to unbelief? I answer, no ; there is a
twofold j udgment that a man may make of himself ; first, of his
person, and secondly, of his ways. It is the judgment of his
ways, not his person that I speak of; let a man get the best
evidence for his person that he can, yet to judge that an evil
way will end in destruction, is his duty, not to do it is athe-
ism. I do not say, that in such a condition a man ought to
throw away the evidences of his personal interest in Christ;
but I say, he cannot keep them. There is a 'twofold con-
demnation of a man's self ; First, In respect of desert, when
the soul concludes, that it deserves to be cast out of the
presence of God ; and this is so far from a business of un-
belief, that it is an effect of faith. Secondly, With respect
IN BELIEVERS. 391
to the issue and event; when the soul concludes it shall be
damned. I do not say this is the duty of any one, nor do I
call them to it, but this I say, that the end of the way where-
in a man is, ought by him to be concluded to be death, that
he may be provoked to fly from it. And this is another con-
sideration, that ought to dwell upon such a soul, if it desire
to be freed from the entanglement of its lusts.
3. Consider the evils of it ; I mean its present evils.
Danger respects what is to come ; evil what is present.
Some of the many evils that attend an unmortifiedlust may
be mentioned,
(1.) It grieves the holy and blessed Spirit, which is given
to believers to dwell in them, and abide with them. So the
apostle, Eph, iv. 25 — 29. dehorting them from many lusts
and sins, gives this as the great motive of it, ver. 30. 'Grieve
not the Holy Spirit, whereby you are sealed to the day of
of redemption.' Grieve not that Spirit of God, saith he,
whereby you receive so many and so great benefits, of which
he instances in one signal and comprehensive one; 'sealing
to the day of redemption.' He is grieved by it, as a tender
and loving friend is grieved at the unkindness of his friend,
of whom he hath well deserved ; so is it with this tender
and loving Spirit, who hath chosen our hearts for a habita-
tion to dwell in, and there to do for us all that our souls de-
sire. He is grieved by our harbouring his enemies, and
those whom he is to destroy in our hearts, with him. He
doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve us; Lam. iii. 33. and
shall we daily grieve him? Thus is he said sometimes to be
vexed, sometimes grieved at his heart, to express the great-
est sense of our provocation. Now if there be any thing of
gracious ingenuity left in the soul, if it be not utterly hard-
ened by the deceitfulness of sin, this consideration will cer-
tainly affect it. Consider who and what thou art, who the
Spirit is that is grieved, what he hath done for thee, what
he comes to thy soul about, what he hath already done in
thee, and be ashamed. Among those who walk with God,
there is no greater motive and incentive unto universal ho-
liness, and the preserving of their hearts and spirits, in all
purity and cleanness than this, that the blessed Spirit, who
hath undertaken to dwell in them as temples of God, and to
preserve them meet for him who so dwells in them, is con-
tinually considering what they give entertainment in their
392 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
hearts unto, and rejoiceth when his temple is kept undefiled ;
that was a high aggravation of the sin of Zimri, that he
brought his adulteress into the congregation in the sight of
Moses and the rest, who were weeping for the sins of the
people ; Numb. xxv. G. and is it not a high aggravation of
the countenancing a lust, or suffering it to abide in the heart,
when it is (as it must be, if we are believers), entertained
under the peculiar eye and view of the Holy Ghost; taking
care to preserve his tabernacle pure and holy.
(2.) The Lord Jesus Christ is wounded afresh by it; his
new creature in the heart is wounded; his love is foiled;
his adversary gratified. As a total relinquishment of him,
by the deceitfulness of sin, is the crucifying him afresh, and
the ' putting of him to open shame ;' so every harbouring of
sin that he came to destroy, wounds and grieves him.
(3.) It will take away a man's usefulness in his genera-
tion. His works, his endeavours, his labours, seldom receive
blessing from God. If he be a preacher, God commonly
blows upon his ministry, that he shall labour in the fire, and
not be honoured with any success, or doing any work for
God ; and the like may be spoken of other conditions. The
world is at this day full of poor withering professors ; how
few are there that walk in any beauty or glory ; how bar-
ren, how useless, are they for the most part? Amongst the
many reasons that may be assigned of this sad estate, it may
justly be feared, that this is none of the least effectual ; many
men harbour spirit-devouring lusts, in their bosoms, that
lie as worms, at the root of their obedience and corrode and
weaken it day by day. All graces, all the ways and means
whereby any graces may be exercised and improved, are pre-
judiced by this means; and as to any success God blasts
such men's undertakings.
This then is my second direction, and it regards the op-
position that is to be made to lust, in respect of its habitual
residence in the soul ; keep alive upon thy heart, these or
the like considerations of its guilt, danger, and evil ; be
much in the meditation of these things. Cause thy heart
to dwell and abide upon them. Engage thy thoughts into
these considerations, let them not go off, nor wander from
them, until they begin to have a powerful influence upon thy
soul ; until they make it to tremble.
IN BELIEVERS. 393
CHAP. XI.
The third direction proposed. Load thy conscience tvith the guilt of the
perplexing distemper. The ways and means tvhereby that may be done.
The fourth direction. Vehement desire for deliverance. The fifth.
Some distempers rooted deeply in men's natural tempers. Considerations
of such distempers: ways of dealings with them. The sixth direction.
Occasions and advantages of sin to be prevented. The seventh direction.
The first actings of sin vigorously to be opposed.
This is my third direction.
Load thy conscience with the guilt of it. Not only con-
sider that it hath a guilt, but load thy conscience with the
guilt of its actual eruptions and distui'bances.
For the right improvement of this rule, I shall give some
particular directions.
1. Take God's method in it, and begin with generals,
and so descend to particulars.
(1.) Charge thy conscience with that guilt which appears
in it, from the rectitude and holiness of the law. Bring the
holy law of God into thy conscience, lay thy corruption to
it ; pray that thou mayest be affected with it. Consider the
holiness, spirituality, fiery severity, inwardness, absoluteness
of the law ; and see how thou canst stand before it. Be
much, I say, in affecting thy conscience with the terror of
the Lord in the law, and how righteous it is, that every one
of thy transgressions should receive a recompense of reward.
Perhaps thy conscience will invent shifts and evasions to
keep off the power of this consideration, as that the con-
demning power of the law doth not belong to thee, thou
art set free from it, and the like ; and so, though thou be not
conformable to it, yet thou needest not to be so much trou-
bled at it. But,
[1.] Tell thy conscience, that it cannot manage any
evidence to the purpose, that thou art free from the con-
demning power of sin, whilst thy unmortified lust lies in thy
heart; so that perhaps the law may make good its plea
against thee, for a full dominion, and then thou art a lost
creature. Wherefore it is best to ponder to the utmost,
what it hath to say.
394 MORTIIICATION OF SIN
Assuredly, he that pleads in the most secret reserve of
his heart, that he is freed from the condemning power of the
law, thereby secretly to countenance himself in giving the
least allowance unto any sin or lust, is not able on gospel
grounds, to manage any evidence unto any tolerable spiri-
tual security, that indeed he is in a due manner freed from
what he so pretends himself to be delivered.
[2.] Whatever be the issue, yet the law hath commission
from God to seize upon transgressors, wherever it find them,
and so bring them before his throne, where they are to plead
for themselves. This is thy present case, the law hath found
thee out; and before God it wall bring thee, if thou canst
plead a pardon, well and good, if not, the law will do its
work.
[3.] However, this is the proper work of the law, to dis-
cover sin in the guilt of it, to awake and humble the soul
for it, to be a glass to represent sin in its colours ; and if
thou deniest to deal with it on this account, it is not through
faith, but through the hardness of thy heart, and the deceit-
fulness of sin.
This is a door that too many professors liave gone out
at, unto open apostacy ; such a deliverance from the law
they have pretended, as that they would consult its guid-
ance and direction no more; they would measure their sin
by it no more ; by little and little this principle hath insen-
sibly, from the notion of it, proceeded to influence their
practical understandings; and, having taken possession there,
hath turned the will and affections loose to all manner of
abominations.
By such ways, I say then as these, persuade thy con-
science to hearken diligently to what the law speaks in the
name of the Lord unto thee, about thy lust and corruption.
Oh ! if thy ears be open, it will speak with a voice that shall
make thee tremble, that shall cast thee to the ground, and fill
thee with astonishment. If ever thou wilt mortify thy cor-
ruptions, thou must tie up thy conscience to the law, shut
it from all shifts and exceptions, until it owns its guilt with
a clear and thorough apprehension ; so that thence, as David
speaks, thy ' iniquity may ever be before thee.'
(2.) Bring thy lust to the gospel ; not for relief, but for
farther conviction of its guilt, look on him whom thou hast
IN BELIEVERS. 395
pierced, and be in bitterness. Say to thy soul. What have
I done; what love, what mercy, what blood, what grace
have I despised and trampled on ? Is this the return I make
to the Father, for his love, to the Son for his blood, to the
Holy Ghost for his grace? Do I thus requite the Lord?
Have I defiled the heart that Christ died to wash, that the
blessed Spirit hath chosen to dwell in? And can I keep
myself out of the dust? What can I say to the dear Lord
Jesus? How shall I hold up my head with any boldness be-
fore him ? Do I account communion with him of so little
value, that for this vile lust's sake, I have scarce left him any
room in my heart? How shall I escape, if I neglect so great
salvation? In the meantime, what shall I say to the Lord?
Love, mercy, grace, goodness, peace, joy, consolation, I
have despised them all, and esteemed them as a thing of
nought, that I might harbour a lust in my heart. Have I
obtained a view of God's fatherly coimtenance, that I might
behold his face, and provoke him to his face? Was my soul
washed, that room might be made for new defilements?
Shall I endeavour to disappoint the end of the death of
Christ? Shall I daily grieve that Spirit whereby I am sealed
to the day of redemption ? Entertain thy conscience daily
with this treaty. See if it can stand before this aggrava-
tion of its guilt. If this make it not sink in some measure
and melt, I fear thy case is dangerous.
2. Descend to particulars. As under the general head
of the gospel, all the benefits of it are to be considered, as
redemption, justification, and the like; so in particular,
consider the management of the love of them towards thine
own soul, for the aggravation of the guilt of thy corrup-
tion. As,
(1.) Consider the infinite patience and forbearance of
God towards thee in particular. Consider what advantages
he might have taken against thee, to have made thee a
shame and a reproach in this world, and an object of wrath
for ever. How thou hast dealt treacherously and falsely
with him from time to time, flattered him with thy lips, but
broken all promises and engagements, and that by the.
means of that sin thou art now in pursuit of; and yet he
hath spared thee from time to time, although thou seemest
boldly to have put it to the trial how long he could hold
396 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
out. And wilt thou yet sin against him? Wilt thou yet
weary him and make him to serve with thy corruptions ?
' Hast thou not often been ready to conclude thyself, that
it was utterly impossible that he should bear any longer
with thee ; that he would cast thee off, and be gracious no
more ; that all his forbearance was exhausted, and hell and
wrath was even ready prepared for thee? and yet above all
thy expectation he hath returned with visitations of love.
And wilt thou yet abide in the provocation of the eyes of
his glory ?
(2.) How often hast thou been at the door of being har-
dened by the deceitfulness of sin ; and by the infinite rich
grace of God hast been recovered to communion with him
again ?
Hast thou not found grace decaying ; delight in duties,
ordinances, and prayer, meditation vanishing ; inclinations
to loose careless walking thriving, and they who before en-
tangled almost beyond recovery ? hast thou not found thy-
self engaged in such ways, societies, companies, and that
with delight, as God abhors? and wilt thou venture any
more to the brink of hardness ?
(3.) All God's gracious dealings with thee in providen-
tial dispensations, deliverances, afflictions, mercies, enjoy-
ments, all ought here to take place. By these, I say, and
the like means, load thy conscience, and leave it not, until
it be thoroughly affected with the guilt of thy indwelling
corruption, until it is sensible of its wound, and lie in the
dust before the Lord ; unless this be done to the purpose,
all other endeavours are to no purpose. Whilst the con-
science hath any means to alleviate the guilt of sin, the
soul will never vigorously attempt its mortification.
(4.) Being thus affected with thy sin, in the next place,
get a constant longing, breathing after deliverance from the
power of it. Suffer not thy heart one moment to be con-
tented with thy present frame and condition. Longing de-
sires after any thing, in things natural and civil, are of no
value nor consideration, any farther, but as they incite and
stir up the person in whom they are, to a diligent use of
means, for the bringing about the thing aimed at. In spi-
ritual things it is otherwise. Longing, breathing, and pant-
ing after deliverance, is a grace in itself, that hath a mighty
IN BELIEVERS. 39'7
power to conform the soul into the likeness of the thing
longed after. Hence the apostle, describing the repentance
and godly sorrow of the Corinthians, reckons this as one emi-
nent grace that was then set on work ; vehement desire ;
2 Cor. vii. 11. And in this case of indwelling sin, and the
power of it, what frame doth he express himself to be in ;
Rom. vii. 24. His heart breaks out with longings, into a
most passionate expression of desire of deliverance. Now
if this be the frame of saints, upon the general consideration
of indwelling sin, how is it to be heightened and increased,
when thereunto is added the perplexing rage and power of
any particular lust and corruption ? Assure thyself, unless
thou longest for deliverance, thou shalt not have it.
This will make the heart watchful for all opportunities
of advantage against its enemy ; and ready to close with
any assistances that are afforded for its destruction : strong
desires are the very life of that praying always which is en-
joined us, in all condition, and in none is more necessary
than in this; they set faith and hope on work, and are the
soul's moving after the Lord.
Get thy heart then into a panting and breathing frame,
long, sigh, cry out; you know the example of David, I shall
not need to insist on it.
The fifth direction is.
Fifthly, Consider whether the distemper with which thou
art perplexed, be not rooted in thy nature, and cherished,
fomented, and heightened from thy constitution. Aprone-
ness to some sins may doubtless lie in the natural temper
and disposition of men. In this case consider,
1. This is not in the least an extenuation of the guilt of
thy sin. Some with an open profaneness will ascribe gross
enormities to their temper and disposition. And whether
others may not relieve themselves from the pressing guilt of
their distempers by the same consideration, I know not. It
is from the fall, from the original depravation of our natures,
that the fomes and nourishment of any sin abides in our na-
tural temper. David reckons his being shapen in iniquity and
conception in sin,* as an aggravation of his following sin, not
a lessening or extenuation of it. That thou art peculiarly in-
clined unto any sinful distemper, is but a peculiar breaking
a Psal. li. 5.
398 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
out of original lust in thy nature, which should peculiarly
abase and humble thee.
2. That thou hast to fix upon on this account, in re-
ference to thy walking with God, is that so great an advan-
tage is given to sin, as also to Satan, by this thy temper and
disposition, that without extraordinary watchfulness, care,
and diligence, they will assuredly prevail against thy soul.
Thousands have been on this account hurried headlong to
hell, who otherwise at least might have gone at a more gen-
tle, less provoking, less mischievous rate.
3. For the mortification of any distemper, so rooted in
the nature of a man, unto all other ways and means, already
named or farther to be insisted on, there is one expedient
peculiarly suited. This is that of tlie apostle, 1 Cor. ix. 27.
* I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.' The
bringing of the very body into subjection, is an ordinance
of God tending to the mortification of sin. This gives
check unto the natural root of the distemper, and withers it
by taking away its fatness of soil. Perhaps, because the
Papists, men ignorant of the righteousness of Christ, the
work of his Spirit, and whole business in hand, have laid
the whole weight and stress of mortification in voluntary
services and penances, leading to the subjection of the body,
knowing indeed the true nature neither of sin nor mortifica-
tion; it may on the other side be a temptation to some, to
neglect some means of humiliation which by God himself
are owned and appointed. The bringing of the body into
subjection in the case insisted on, by cutting short the na-
tural appetite, by fasting, watching, and the like, is doubt-
less acceptable to God, so it be done with the ensuing limi-
tations.
(1.) That the outward weakening and impairing of the
body be not looked upon as a thing good in itself, or that
any mortification doth consist therein, which were again to
bring us under carnal ordinances ; but only as a means for
the end proposed, the weakening of any distemper in its
natural root and seat. A man may have leanness of body
and soul together.
(2.) That the means whereby this is done, namely, by
fasting and watching, and the like, be not looked on as things
that in themselves, and by virtue of their own power, can
IN BELIEVERS. 399
produce true mortification of any sin ; for if they would,
sin might be mortified without any help of the Spirit, in
any unregenerate person in the world. They are to be
looked on only as ways whereby the Spirit may, and some-
times doth, put forth strength for the accomplishing of his
own work, especially in the case mentioned. Want of a
right understanding, and due improvement of these and the
like considerations, hath raised a mortification among the
Papists, that may be better applied to horses, and other
beasts of the field, than to believers.
This is the sum of what hath been spoken ; when the
distemper complained of seems to be rooted in the natural
temper and constitution, in applying our souls to a partici-
pation of the blood and Spirit of Christ, an endeavour is to
be used to g-ive check in the wav of God to the natural root
of that distemper.
The sixth direction is,
Sixthly, Consider what occasions, what advantages thy
distemper hath taken to exert and put forth itself, and watch
against them all.
This is one part of that duty which our blessed Saviour
recommends to his disciples under the name of watching;
Mark xiii. 37. ' I say unto you all, watch ;' which in Luke
xxi. 34. is, 'Take heed that your hearts be not overcharged;'
watch against all eruptions of thy corruptions. I mean
that duty which David professed himself to be exercised
unto ; ' I have,' saith he, * kept myself from mine iniquity.'
He watched all the ways and workings of his iniquity, to
prevent them, to rise up against them. This is that which
we are called unto under the name of considering our ways ;
consider what ways, what companies, what opportunities,
what studies, what businesses, what conditions, have at any
time given, or do usually give advantages to thy distem-
pers, and set thyself heedfuUy against them all. Men will
do this with respect unto their bodily infirmities and dis-
tempers. The seasons, the diet, the air that have proved
offensive, shall be avoided. Are the things of the soul of
less importance ? Know that he that dares to dally with oc-
casions of sin, will dare to sin. He that will venture upon
temptations unto wickedness, will venture upon wickedness.
Hazael thought he should not be so wicked as the prophet
400 MORTIFICATION O I- SIN
told him he would be ; to convince him, the prophet tells
him no more, but ' Thou shalt be king of Syria.' If he will
venture on temptations unto cruelty, he will be cruel. Tell
a man he shall commit such and such sins, he will startle
at it ; if you can convince him, that he will venture on such
occasions and temptations of them, he will have little
ground left for his confidence. Particular directions be-
longing to this head are many, not now to be insisted on.
But because this head is of no less of importance than the
whole doctrine here handled, I have at large in another trea-
tise, about entering into temptations treated of it.
The seventh direction is,
Seventhly, Rise mightily against the first actings of thy
distemper, its first conceptions ; suffer it not to get the
least ground. Do not say. Thus far it shall go, and no far-
ther. If it have allowance for one step, it will take another.
It is impossible to fix bounds to sin. It is like water in a
channel ; if it once break out, it will have its course. Its
not acting is easier to be compassed, than its bounding.
Therefore doth James give that gradation and process of
lust, chap. i. 14, 15. that we may stop at the entrance.
Dost thou find thy corruption to begin to entangle thy
thoughts ? rise up with all thy strength against it, with no
less indignation, than if it had fully accomplished what it
aims at ; consider what an unclean thought would have ; it
would have thee roll thyself in folly and filth. Ask envy
what it would have ; murder and destruction is at the end
of it. Set thyself against it with no less vigour, than if it
had utterly debased thee to wickedness. Without this
course thou wilt not prevail. As sin gets ground in the af-
fections to delight in, it gets also upon the understanding
to slight it.
CHAP. XII.
The eighth direction. Thoiightfulness of the excellency of the majesty of
God. Our unacquaintedness with him, proposed and considered.
Eighthly, Use and exercise thyself to such meditations as
may serve to fill thee at all times with self-abasement and
thoughts of thine own vileness ; as.
IX HELIEVEUS. 401
1. Be much in thouohtfulness of the excellency of the
majesty of God and thine infinite inconceivable distance
from him ; many thoughts of it cannot but fill thee with a
sense of thine own vileness, which strikes deep at the root
of any indwelling sin. When Job comes to a clear disco-
very of the greatness and the excellency of God, he is filled
with self-abhorrence, and is pressed to humiliation ; Job
xlii. 5, 6, And in what state doth the prophet Habakkuk
affirm himself to be cast upon the apprehension of th^ ma-
jesty of God ? chap. iii. 16. ' With God,' says Job, ' is terri-
ble majesty." Hence were the thoughts of them of old,
that when they had seen God, they should die. The Scrip-
ture abounds in this self-abasing consideration, comparing
the men of the earth to grasshoppers, to vanity, the dust of
the balance in respect of God.*^ Be much in thoughts of
this nature, to abase the pride of thy heart, and to keep thy
soul humble within thee. There is nothing will render thee
a greater indisposition to be imposed on by the deceits of
sin, than such a frame of heart. Think greatly of the great-
ness of God.
2. Think much of thine unacquaintedness with him.
Though thou knowest enough to keep thee low and humble,
yet how little a portion is it that thou knowest of him? The
contemplation hereof cast that wise man into that appre-
hension of himself, which he expresses; Prov. xxx. 2 4.
' Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the
understanding of a man. I neither learned wisdom, nor
have the knowledge of the holy. Who hath ascended up
into heaven or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in
his fists ? Who hath bound the waters in a garment ? Who
hath established the ends of the earth ? What is his name,
and what is his Son's name, if thou canst tell V Labour with
this also to take down the pride of thy heart. What dost
thou know of God? How little a portion is it? How im-
mense is he in his nature ? Canst thou look without terror
into the abyss of eternity ? Thou canst not bear the rays of
his glorious being.
Because 1 look on this consideration of great use in our
"walking with God, so far as it may have a consistency with
that filial boldness which is given us in Jesus Christ to draw
a Job xxxvii. 22. ^ Isa. xl. 13—15.
VOL. VII. 2 D
402 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
nigh to the throne of" grace, I shall farther insist upon it, to
give an abiding impression of it to the souls of thera who
desire to walk humbly with God.
Consider then, I say, to keep thy heart in continual awe
of the majesty of God, that persons of the most high and
eminent attainment, of the nearest and most familiar com-
munion with God, do yet in this life know but a very little
of him, and his glory. God reveals his name to Moses, the
most glorious attributes that he hath manifested in the co-
venant of grace ; Exod. xxxiv. 5, 6. yet all are but the back-
parts of God. All that he knows by it, is but little, low,
compared to the perfection of his glory. Hence it is with
peculiar reference to JVIoses, that it is said * No man hath
seen God at any time ;' John i. 18. of him in comparison with
Christ doth he speak, ver. 17. and of him it is here said,
'No man,' no not Moses, the most eminent among them,* hath
seen God at any time.' We speak much of God, can talk
of him, his ways, his works, his counsels, all the day long ;
the truth is, we know very little of him; our thoughts, our
meditations, our expressions of him are low, many of them
unworthy of his glory, none of them reaching his perfec-
tions.
You will say, that Moses was under the law, wlien God
wrapped up himself in darkness, and his mind in types and
clouds and dark institutions. Under the glorious shining
of the gospel, which hath brought light and immortality to
light, God being revealed from his own bosom, we now
know him much more clearly, and as he is ; we see his face
now, and not his back-parts only, as Moses did.
AnsA.l acknowledge a vast, and almost inconceivable dif-
ference between the acquaintance we now have with God, af-
ter his speaking to us by his own Son,*^ and that which the ge-
nerality of the saints had under the law : for although their
eyes were as good, sharp, and clear as ours, their faith and
spiritual understanding, not behind ours, the object as glo-
rious unto them, as unto us, yet our day is more clear than
theirs was ; the clouds are blown away and scattered,** the
shadows of the night are gone and fled away, the sun is risen,
and the means of sight is made more eminent and clear than
formerly. Yet,
« Ueh. i. 11. '' Cant. iv. 6.
IN BKLIEVEKS. 403
2. That peculiar sight which Moses had of God, Exod.
xxxiv. was a gospel-sight, a sight of God, as gracious, &c.
and yet, it is called but his back-parts, that is, but low and
mean, in comparison of his excellencies and perfections.
3. The apostle, exalting to the utmost this glory of light,
above that of the law, manifesting that now the veil causing
darkness, is taken away ; so that with open or uncovered
face* we behold the glory of the Lord, tells us how ; 'as in a
glass;' 2 Cor. iii. 18. in a glass, how is that? Clearly; per-
fectly? alas ! no. He tells you how that is, 1 Cor. xiii. 12,
'We see" through a glass darkly,' saith he ; it is not a tele-
scope that helps us to see things afar off, concerning which
the apostle speaks : and yet what poor helps are they ? How
short do we come of the truth of things, notwithstanding
their assistance? It is a looking-glass whereunto he alludes
(where are only obscure species and images of things, and
not the things themselves), and a sight therein that he com-
pares our knowledge to. He tells you also that all that we
doseeSi£f707rTpou,'by'or 'through this glass,' isinalvijfxaTi, in
'a riddle,' in darkness and obscurity. And speaking of him-
self, who surely was much more clear-sighted than any now
living, he tells us, that he saw but Ik inepovg, ' in part ;' he saw
but the back-parts of heavenly things; ver. 12. and compares
all the knowledge he had attained of God, to that he had of
things when he was a child ; ver. 11. it is a fxipog, short of the
rd riXuov : yea, such as naTapyi)^{i<T£Tm, ' it shall be destroyed,'
or done away. We know what weak, feeble, uncertain no-
tions and apprehensions, children have of things of any ab-
struse consideration: how when they grew up with any im-
provements of parts and abilities those conceptions vanish,
and they are ashamed of them. It is the commendation of
a child to love, honour, believe, and obey his father ; but for
his science and notions, his father knows his childishness
and folly. Notwithstanding all our confidence of high at-
tainments, all our notions of God are but childish in respect
of his infinite perfections. We lisp and babble, and say we
know not what, for the most part, in our most accurate, as
we think, conceptions and notions of God. We may love,
honour, believe, and obey our father, and therewith he ac-
cepts our child!ish thoughts, for they are but childish. We
^ 'AyaHSHa'KvfA.fAiVi} Wfoa-ajra;.
2 D 2
404 MORTIl-IC ATIOX OV S 1 V
see but his back-parts, we know but little of him. Hence is
that promise, wherewith we are so often supported, and com-
forted in our distress; 'We shall see him as he is;' we
shall 'see him face to face ;' 'know as we are known ; com-
prehend that for which we are comprehended ;' 1 Cor. xv. 12.
1 John iii. 2. and positively, 'Now we see him not:' all
concluding that here we see but his back-parts, not as he is,
but in a dark, obscure representation; not in the perfection
of his glory.
The queen of Sheba had heard much of Solomon, and
framed many great thoughts of his magnificence, in her mind
thereupon ; but when she came and saw his glory, she was
forced to confess, that the one half of the truth had not been
told her. We may suppose that we have here attained great
knowledge, clear and high thoughts of God ; but alas !
when he shall bring us into his presence we shall cry out,
we never knew him as he is. The thousandth part of his
glory and perfection and blessedness, never entered into our
hearts.
The apostle tells us, 1 John iii. 2. that 'we know not what
we ourselves shall be ;' what we shall find ourselves in the
issue; much less will it enter into our hearts to conceive,
what God is, and what we shall find him to be. Consider
either him who is to be known, or the way whereby we know
him ; and this will farther appear.
(1.) We know so little of God, because it is God who is
thus to be known ; that is, he who hath described himself to
us very much by this, that we cannot know him; what else
doth he intend where he calls himself invisible, incompre-
hensible, and the like? that is, he whom we do not, cannot
know as he is : and our farther progress consists more in
knowing what he is not, than what he is. Thus is he de-
scribed to be immortal, infinite ; that is, he is not as we are,
mortal, finite, and limited. Hence is that glorious descrip-
tion of him, 1 Tim. vi. IG. 'Who only hath immortality
dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto,
whom no man hath seen nor can see.' His light is such as
no creature can approach unto : he is not seen, not because
he cannot be seen, but because we cannot bear the sight of
him. The light of God, in whom is no darkness, forbids all
access to him by any creature whatever: we who cannot be-
IX BELIEVERS. 405
hold the sun in its glory, are too weak to bear the beams of
infinite brightness. On this consideration, as was said, the
wise man professeth himself * a very beast, and not to have
the understanding of a man ;' Prov. xxx. 2. that is, he knew
nothing in comparison of God ; so that he seemed to have
lost all his understanding, when once he came to the consi-
deration of him, his work, and his ways.
In this consideration, let our souls descend to some par-
ticulars.
[1.] For the being of God ; we are- so far from a know-
ledge of it, so as to be able to instruct one another therein
by words and expressions of it, as that to frame any concep-
tions in our mind, with such species and impressions of
things, as we receive the knowledge of all other things by,
is to make an idol to ourselves, and so to worship a god of
our own making, and not the God that made us. We may
as well and as lawfully hew him out of wood, or stone, as
form him a being in our minds, suited to our apprehensions.
The utmost of the best of our thoughts of the being of God,
is, that we can have no thoughts of it. Our knowledge of a
being is but low, when it mounts no higher, but only to know
that we know it not.
[2.] There be some things of God, which he himself hath
taught us to speak of, and to regulate our expressions of
them ; but when we have so done, we see not the things
themselves, we know them not : to believe and admire is all
that we attain to. We profess, as we are taught, that God
is infinite, omnipotent, eternal : and we know what disputes
and notions there are about omnipresence, immensity, infi-
niteness, and eternity. We have, I say, words and notions
about these things, but as to the things themselves, what do
we know ? What do we comprehend of them? Can the mind
of man do any more but swallow itself up in an infinite abyss,
which is as nothing ; give itself up to what it cannot con-
ceive, much less express? Is notour understanding brutish
in the contemplation of such things ? And is as if it were-
not? Yea, the perfection of our understanding, is, not to un-
derstand, and to rest there : they are but the back-parts of
eternity and infiniteness that we have a glimpse of. What
shall I say of the Trinity, or the subsistence of distinct per-
sons in the same individual essence? a mystery, by many de-
406 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
nied because by none understood ; a mystery, wbose every
letter is mysterious. Who can declare the generation of the
Son, the procession of the Spirit, or the difference of the one
from the other? But I shall not farther instance in particu-
lars. That infinite and inconceivable distance that is be-
tween him and us, keeps us in the dark as to any sight of
his face, or clear apprehension of his perfections. We
know him rather by what he does, than by what he is ; by
his doing us good, than by his essential goodness, and how
little a portion of him, as Job speaks, is hereby discovered?
2. We know little of God, because it is faith alone
whereby here we know him ; I shall not now discourse about
the remaining impressions on the hearts of all men by na-
ture, that there is a God, nor what they may rationally be
taught concerning that God, from the works of his creation
and providence, which they see and behold ; it is confes-
sedly, and that upon the woful experience of all ages, so
weak, low, dark, confused, that none ever on that account
glorified Gpd as they ought ; but notwithstanding all their
knowledge of God, were indeed without God in the world:
The chief, and upon the matter, almost only acquaintance
we have with God, and his dispensations of himself, is by
faith. ' He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and
that he is a rewarder of them that seek him;' Heb. xi. 6. our
knowledge of him, and his lewarding (the bottom of our
obedience or coming to him), is believing. 'We walk by
faith, and not by sight;' 2 Cor. v. 7. Sm Trtarswc ov dla tldovg'
by faith, and so by faith, as not to have any express idea,
image, or species of that which we believe ; faith is all the
argument we have of things not seen ; Heb. xi. 1. I might
here insist upon the nature of it, and from all its concomi-
tants and concernments manifest, that we know but the
back-parts of what we know by faith only. As to its rise,
it is built purely upon the testimony of him, whom we have
not seen : as the apostle speaks, ' How can ye love him
whom ye have not seen?' that is, whom you know not, but
by faith, that he is : faith receives all upon his testimony,
whom it receives to be, only on his own testimony. As to
its nature it is an assent upon testimony, not an evidence
upon demonstration ; and the object of it is, as was said be-
fore, above us. Hence our faith, as was formerly observed.
IlSr BELIEVERS. 407
is called a 'seeing darkly as in a glass :' all that we know
this way (and all that we know of God, we know this way)
is but low, and dark, and obscure.
But you will say, all this is true, but yet it is only so to
them that know not God ; perhaps as he is revealed in Jesus
Christ: with them who do so it is otherwise. It is true,
* No man hath seen God at any time, but the only begotten
Son he hath revealed him;' John i. 17, 18. and 'the Son of
God is now come, and hath given us an understanding that
we may know him that is true ;' 1 John v. 20. The illumina-
tion of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, shineth upon believers ; 2 Cor. iv. 4. yea, and ' God
who commanded light to shine out of darkness, shines into
their hearts to give them the knowledge of his glory in the
face of his Son ;' ver.6. So that 'though we were darkness,
yet we are now light in the Lord;' Eph. v. 8. And the apo-
stle says, ' We all with open face behold the glory of the
Lord ;' 2 Cor. iii. 18. and we are now so far from being in
such darkness, or at such a distance from God, that 'our
communion and fellowship is with the Father and the Son ;'
1 John i. 3. the light of the gospel whereby now God is re-
vealed is glorious ; not a star, but the sun in his beauty is
risen upon us, and the veil is taken from our faces ; so that
though unbelievers, yea, and perhaps some weak believers,
may be in some darkness, yet those of any growth, or con-
siderable attainments have a clear sight and view of the face
of God in Jesus Christ.
To which I answer,
1. The truth is we all of us know enough of him to love
him more than we do, to delight in him and serve him, be-
lieve him, obey him, put our trust in him above all that we
have hitherto attained. Our darkness and weakness is no
plea for our negligence and disobedience. Who is it that
hath walked up to the knowledge that he hath had of the per-
fections, excellencies and will of God? God's end in giving us
any knowledge of himself here, is that we may glorify him
as God ; that is, love him, serve him, believe and obey him,
o-ive him all the honour and glory that is due from poor sin-
ful creatures, to a sin-pardoning God and Creator; we must
all acknowledge that we were never thoroughly transformed
into the image of that knowledge which we have had. And
408 MORTIFICATION' OF SIX
had we used our talents well, we might have been trusted
with more.
2. Comparatively; that knowledge which we have of
God by the revelation of Jesus Christ in the gospel, is ex-
ceeding eminent and glorious. It is so in comparison of
any knowledge of God, that might otherwise be attained, or
was delivered in the law under the Old Testament, which
had but the shadow of good things, not the express image of
them ; this the apostle pursues at large, 2 Cor. iii. Christ hath
now in these last days, revealed the Father from his own
bosom, declared his name, made known his mind, will, and
council in a far more clear, eminent, distinct manner, than
he did formerly, whilst he kept his people under the pade-
gogy of the law, and this is that which for the most part is
intended in the places before-mentioned; the clear, perspi-
cuous delivery and declaration of God and his will in the
gospel, is expressly exalted in comparison of any other way
of revelation of himself.
3. The difference between believers and unbelievers as to
knowledge, is not so much in the matter of their knowledge,
as in the manner of knowing. Unbelievers, some of them
may know more, and be able to say more of God, his per-
fections and his will, than many believers ; but they know
nothing as they ought, nothing in a right manner, nothing
spiritually and savingly; nothing with a holy, heavenly,
light. The excellency of a believer is not, that he hath a
large apprehension of things, but that what he doth appre-
hend, which perhaps may be very little, he sees it in the
light of the Spirit of God, in a saving soul-transforming
light: and this is that which gives us communion with God,
and not prying thoughts, or curious raised notions.
4. Jesus Christ by his word and Spirit reveals to the
hearts of all his, God as a Father, as a God in covenant, as
a rewarder, every way sufficiently to teach us to obey him
here, and to lead us to his bosom, to lie down there in the
fruition of him to eternity. But yet now,
5. Notwithstanding all this, it is but a little portion we
know of him, we see but his back-parts. For,
(1.) The intendment of all gospel revelation is not to
unveil God's essential glory, that we should see him as he
4s, but merely to declare so much of him as he knows suf-
IX BELIEVERS. 409
ficient to be a bottom of our faith, love, obedience, and com-
ing to him : that is, of the faith which here he expects from
us. Such services as beseem poor creatures in the midst of
temptations ; but when he calls us to eternal admiration and
contemplation, without interruption, he will make a new
mannerof discovery of himself, and the whole shape of things,
as it now lies before us, will depart as a shadow.
(2.) We are dull and slow of heart to receive the things
that are in the word revealed. God by our infirmity and
weakness, keeping us in continual dependance on him, for
teachings and revelations of himself out of his word, never
in this world bringing any soul to the utmost of what is from
the word to be made out and discovered ; so that although
the way of revelation in the gospel be clear and evident,
yet we know little of the things themselves that are re-
vealed.
Let us then revive the use and intendment of this consi-
deration; will not a due apprehension of this inconceivable
greatness of God, and that infinite distance wherein we
stand from him, fill the soul with a holy and awful fear of
him ; so as to keep it in a frame, unsuited to the thriving or
flourishing of any lustwhatever? Let the soul be continually
wonted to reverential thoughts of God's greatness and om-
nipresence, and it will be much upon its watch, as to any
undue deportments ; consider him with whom you have to
do ; even ' our God is a consuming fire;' and in your great-
est abashments athispresence and eye, know that your very
nature is too narrow to bear] apprehensions suitable to his
essential glory.
CHAP. xin.
The ninth direction. When the heart is disquieted by sin, speak no peace to
it, until God speak it. Peace, without detestation of sin, unsound. So is
peace measured out unto ourselves. Hoio we may hnoiv when tve measure
our peace unto ourselves. Directions as to that inquiry. The vanity of
speaking peace slightly. Also of doing it on one singnlar account, not uni-
versally.
Ninthly, In case God disquiet the heart about the guilt of
its distempers, either in respect of its root and indwelling.
410 MORTIFICATIOX OF SIN
or in respect of any eruptions of it, take heed thou speakest
not peace to thyself before God speaks it ; but hearken
what he says to thy soul. This is our next direction ; with-
out the observation whereof, the heart will be exceedingly
exposed to the deceitfulness of sin.
This is a business of great importance. It is a sad thing
for a man to deceive his own soul herein. All the warnings
God gives us in tenderness to our souls, to try and examine
ourselves, do tend to the preventing of this great evil of
speaking peace groundlessly to ourselves, which is upon the
issue to bless ourselves, in an opposition to God. It is not
my business to insist upon the danger of it, but to help
believers to prevent it, and to let them know when they
do so.
To manage this direction aright observe,
1. That as it is the great prerogative and sovereignty of
God, to give grace to whom he pleases (' ?Ie hath mercy on
whom he will;' Rom. ix; 16. and among all the sons of men,
he calls whom he will, and sanctifies whom he will), so among
those so called and justified, and whom he will save, he yet
reserves this privilege to himself, to speak peace to whom he
pleaseth, and in what degree he pleaseth, even amongst them
on whom he hath bestowed grace. He is the God of all con-
solation, in an especial manner in his dealing with believers:
that is, of the good things that he keeps locked up in his
family, and gives out of it to all his children at his pleasure.
This the Lord insists on, Isa. Ivii. 16 — 18. itis the case under
consideration that is there insisted on. When God says he
will heal their breaches and disconsolations, he assumes this
privilege to himself in an especial manner, ' I create it;' ver.
19. even in respect of these poor wounded creatures I create
it, and according to my sovereignty make it out as I please.
Hence as it is with the collation of grace in reference to
them that are in the state of nature; God doth it in great
curiosity, and his proceedings therein in taking and leaving,
as to outward appearances, quite besides and contrary oft-
times to all probable expectations ; so is it in his communi-
cations of peace and joy in reference unto them that are in
the state of grace ; he gives them out oft-times quite besides
our expectation, as to any appearing grounds of his dispen-
sations.
IN BELIEVERS. 411
2. As God creates it for whom he pleaseth, so it is the
prerogative of Christ to speak it home to the conscience.
Speaking to the church of Laodicea, who had healed her
wounds falsely, and spoke peace to herself when she ought
not, he takes to himself that title, * I am the Amen, the faith-
ful witness ;' Rev. iii. 14, He bears testimony concerning our
condition as it is indeed ; we may possibly mistake, and trou-
ble ourselves in vain, or flatter ourselves upon false grounds,
but he is the Amen, the faithful witness ; and what he speaks
of our state and condition, that it is indeed. Isa. xi. 3. He
is said not to judge according to the sight of the eye, not
according to any outward appearance, or any thing that may
be subject to a mistake, as we are apt to do; but he shall
judge and determine every cause as it is indeed.
Take these two previous observations, and I shall give
some rules whereby men may know whether Gocf speaks
peace to them, or whether they speak peace to themselves only.
1. Men certainly speak peace to themselves, when their
so doing is not attended yvith the greatest detestation ima-
ginable of that sin in reference whereunto they do speak
peace to themselves, and abhorrency of themselves for it.
When men are wounded by sin, disquieted and perplexed,
and knowing that there is no remedy for them, but only in
the mercies of God, through the blood of Christ, do there-
fore look to him, and to the promises of the covenant in him,
and thereupon quiet their hearts that it shall be well with
them, and that God will be exalted, that he maybe gracious
to them, and yet their souls are not wrought to the greatest
detestation of the sin or sins, upon the account whereof they
are disquieted, this is to heal themselves, and not to be
healed of God. This is but a great and strong wind, that
the Lord is nigh unto, but the Lord is not in the wind.
When men do truly look upon Christ whom they have
pierced, without which there is no healing or peace, they
will mourn ; Zech. xii. 10. they will mourn for him, even
upon this account, and detest the sin that pierced him.
When we go to Christ for healing, faith eyes him peculiarly
as one pierced. Faith takes several views of Christ, accord-
ing to the occasions of address to him, and communion
with him that it hath. Sometimes it views his holiness,
sometimes his power, sometimes his love, his favour with
412 MORTIFICA'J'IOX OF SIN
his Father. And when it goes for healing and peace, it
looks especially on the blood of the covenant, on his suffer-
ings ; for by his 'stripes are we healed, and the chastisement
of our peace was upon him;' Isa. liii. 5. when we look for
healing, his stripes are to be eyed ; not in the outward story
of them, which is the course of Popish devotionists, but in
the love, kindness, mystery, and design of the cross ; and
when we look for peace, his chastisements must be in our eye.
Now this, I say, if it be done according to the mind of God,
and in the strength of that Spirit which is poured out on
believers, it will beo-et a detestation of that sin or sins, for
which healing and peace is sought. So Ezek. xvi. 60, 61.
* Nevertheless I will remember ray covenant with thee in the
days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlast-
ing covenant.' And what then? 'Then thou shalt remember
thy wayo and be ashamed.' When God comes home to speak
peace in a sure covenant of it, it fills the soul with shame
for all the ways whereby it hath been alienated from him.
And one of the things that the apostle mentions as attending
that godly sorrow, which is accompanied with repentance
unto salvation, never to be repented of, is revenge : ' Yea,
what revenge?' 2 Cor. vii. 11. They reflected on their mis-
carriages with indignation and revenge for their folly in them.
When Job comes up to a thorough healing, he cries,' Now
I abhor myself;' Job xlii. 6. and until he did so, he had no
abiding peace. He might perhaps have made up himself
with that doctrine of free grace which was so excellently
preached by Elihu, chap, xxxiii. from ver. 14. unto 29. but
he had then but skinned his wounds, he must come to self-
abhorrency if he come to healing. So was it with those in
Psal. Ixxviii. 33. 35. in their great trouble and perplexity,
for and upon the account of sin ; I doubt not but upon ad-
dress they made to God in Christ (for that so they did, is
evident from the titles they gave him, they call him their
rock and their redeemer, two words every where pointing-
out the Lord Christ) they speak peace to themselves, but
was it sound and abiding? No, it passed away as the early
dew, God speaks not one word of peace to their souls. But
why had they not peace ? Why, because in tiieir address to
God, they flattered him : but how doth that appear? ver. 37.
'Their heart was not right with him, neither were they
IX BKLIEVERb. 413
steadfast :' they had not a detestation nor rehnquishment of
that sin in reference whereunto they spake peace to them-
selves. Let a man make what application he will for healing
and peace, let him do it to the true physician, let him do it
the right way, let him quiet his heart in the promises of the
covenant; yet when peace is spoken, if it be not attended
with the detestation and abhorrency of that sin, which was
the wound, and caused the disquietment, this is no peace of
God's creating, but of our own purchasing. It is but a
skinning over the wound, whilst the core lies at the bottom,
which will putrify, and corrupt, and corrode, until it break
out again, with noisomeness, vexation, and danger. Let not
poor souls that walk in such a path as this, who are more
sensible of the trouble of sin, than of the pollution of un-
cleanness that attend it ; who address themselves for mercy,
yea, to the Lord in Christ, they address themselves for
mercy, but yet will keep the sweet morsel of their sin under
their tongue ; let them, I say, never think to have true and
solid peace. For instance, thou findest thy heart running
out after the world, and it disturbs thee in thy communion
with God ; the Spirit speaks expressly to thee, ' He that
loveth the world, the love of the Father is not in him.''' This
puts thee on dealing with God in Christ for the healing of
thy soul, the quieting of thy conscience ; but yet withal a
thorough detestation of the evil itself abides not upon thee ;
yea, perhaps that is liked well enough, but only in respect
of the consequences of it : perhaps thou raayest be saved,
yet as through fire, and God will have some work with
thee before he hath done, but thou wilt have little peace in
this life, thou wilt be sick and fainting all thy days ; Isa.
Ivii. 17. This is a deceit that lies at the root of the peace
of many professors, and wastes it : they deal with all their
strength about mercy and pardon ; and seem to have great
communion with God in their so doing ; they lie before him,
bewail their sins and follies, that any one would think, yea, they
think themselves that surely they and their sins are now
parted, and so receive in mercy that satisfies their hearts for
a little season ; but when a thorough search comes to be made,
there hath been some secret reserve for the folly or follies
treated about ; at least there hath not been that thorough ab-
» 1 John ii. 15.
414 MORTIFICATION' OF SIN
Iiorrency of it, which is necessary ; and their whole peace is
quickly discovered to be weak and rotten; scarce abiding
any longer than the words of begging it are in their mouths.
2. When men measure out peace to themselves upon the
conclusions that their convictions and rational principles
will carry them out unto ; this is a false peace and will not
abide. I shall a little explain what I mean hereby. A man
hath got a wound by sin, he hath a conviction of some sin
upon his conscience, he hath not walked uprightly as be-
cometh the gospel ; all is not well and right between God
and his soul. He considers now what is to be done ; light he
hath, and knows what path he must take, and how his soul
hath been formerly healed. Considering that the promises
of God are the outward means of application for the healing
of his sores, and quieting of his heart, he goes to them,
searches them out, finds out some one, or more of them,
whose literal expressions are directly suited to his condition :
says he to himself, God speaks in this promise, here I will
take myself a plaister, as long and broad as my wound, and
so brino-s the word of the promise to his condition, and sets
him down in peace. This is another appearance upon the
mount, the Lord is near, but the Lord is not in it. It hath
not been the work of the Spirit, who alone can convince us
of sin and righteousness and judgment;'' but the mere
actings of the intelligent rational soul. As there are three
sorts of lives, we say, the vegetative, the sensitive, and the
rational or intelligent: somethings have only the vegetative,
some the sensitive also, and that includes the former ; some
have the rational, which takes in and supposes both the
other. Now he that hath the rational, doth not only act
suitably to that principle, but also to both the others he
grows and is sensible. It is so with men in the things of
God ; some are mere natural and rational men ; some have
a superadded conviction with illumination ; and some are truly
regenerate. Now he that hath the latter hath also both the
former ; and therefore he acts sometimes upon the principles
of the rational, sometimes upon the principles of the enlight-
ened man. His true spiritual life is not the principle of all
his motions ; he acts not always in the strength thereof,
neither are all his fruits from that root. In this case that I
b John xvi. 8.
IN BELIEVEKS. 415
speak of, he acts merely upon the principle of conviction
and illumination, whereby his first naturals are heightened;
but the Spirit breathes not at all upon all these waters.
Take an instance : suppose the wound and disquiet of the
soul to be upon the account of relapses, which whatever
the evil or folly be, though for the matter of it never so small,
yet there are no wounds deeper than those that are given the
soul on that account, nor disquietments greater. In the
perturbation of his mind, he finds out that promise, Isa.
Iv. 7. * The Lord will have mercy, and our God will abun-
dantly pardon ;' he will multiply or add to pardon; he \\ill
do it aoain and aoain : or that in Hos. xiv. 4. ' I will heal
their backsliding, 1 will love them freely.' This the man con-
siders, and thereupon concludes peace to himself; whether
the Spirit of God make the application or no, whether that
gives life and power to the letter or no, that he regards not.
He doth not hearken whether God the Lord speak peace.
He doth not wait upon God, who perhaps yet hides his face,
and sees the poor creature stealing peace, and running away
with it, knowing that the time will come, when he will deal
with him again, and call him to a new reckoning;'' when
he shall see that it is in vain to go one step, where God doth
not take him by the hand.
I see here indeed sundry other questions upon this
arising and interposing themselves ; I cannot apply myself
to them all : one I shall a little speak to.
It may be said, then. Seeing that this seems to be the
path that the Holy Spirit leads us in, for the healing of our
wounds, and quieting of our hearts, how shall we know when
we go alone ourselves, and when the Spirit also doth accom-
pany us?
Arts. 1. Ifanyof you are out of the way upon this account,
God will speedily let you know it ; for besides that you
have his promise, that the * meek he will guide in judgment,
and teach them his way ;' Psal. xxv. 9. he will not let you
always err. He will, I say, not suffer your nakedness to be
covered with fig-leaves, but take them away and all the
peace you have in them, and will not suffer you to settle
on such lees ; you shall quickly know your wound is not
heale(J. That is, you shall speedily know whether or no it be
"^ Hos. xi. 3.
41 G MORTiriC ATIOX OK SIN"
thus with you by the event ; the peace you thus get and ob-
tain, will not abide. Whilst the mind is overpowered by its
own convictions there is no hold for disquietments to fix
upon. Stayalittleand all these reasonings will grow cold, and
vanish before the face of the first temptation that arises. But,
2. This course is commonly taken without wailing ;
which is the grace, and that peculiar acting of faith, which
God calls for to be exercised in such a condition. I know
God doth sometimes come in upon the soul instantly, in a
moment as it were, wounding and healing it ; as I am per-
suaded it was in the case of David, when he cut off the lap
of Saul's garment : but ordinarily in such a case God calls
for'^ waitino- and labourino;, attendino; as the eve of a servant
upon his master ; says the prophet Isaiah, chap. viii. 17. ' I
will wait upon the Lord, who hideth his face from Jacob.'
God will have his children lie awhile at his door, when they
have run from his house, and not instantly rush in upon
him ; unless he take them by the hand, and pluck them in,
w^hen they are so ashamed that they dare not come to him.
Now self-healers, or men that speak peace to themselves, do
commonly make haste ; they will not tarry : they do not
hearken what God speaks, but on they will go to be healed.*
3. Such a course, though it may quiet the conscience
and the mind, the rational concluding part of the soul, yet
it doth not sweeten the heart, with rest and gracious
contentation. The answer it receives, is much like that
Elisha gave Naaman, 'Go in peace ;'''it quieted his mind,
but I must question whether it sweetened his heart, or gave
him any joy in believing, other than the natural joy that
was then stirred in him upon his healing. * Do not my words
do good?' saith the Lord; Mich. ii. 7. when God speaks,
there is not only truth in his words, that may answer the
conviction of our understandings, but also they do good,
they bring that which is sweet and good and desirable to
the will and affections ; by them the soul returns unto its
rest; Psal. cxvi. 7.
4. Which is worst of all ; it amends not the life, it heals
not the evil, it cures not the distemper : when God speaks
peace, it guides and keeps the soul that it turn not again to
folly .s When we speak it ourselves, the heart is not taken
d Psal. cxxiii. C. cxxx. 6. « Isa. xxviii. 16. f'i King"; v. 19. ? Psal. Ixxxv. 8.
IN BELIEVERS. 417
off the evil. Nay, it is the readiest course in the world to
bring a soul into a trade of backsliding. If upon thy plais-
tering thyself, thou findest thyself rather animated to the
battle again, than utterly weaned from it, it is too palpable
that thou hast been at work with thine own soul, but Jesus
Christ and his Spirit were not there. Yea, and oftentimes
nature having done its work, will ere a few days are over,
come for its reward ; and having been active in the work of
healing, will be ready to reason for a new wounding. In
God's speaking peace there comes along so much sweet-
ness, and such a discovery of his love as is a strong obliga-
tion on the soul, no more to deal perversely.^
3. We speak peace to ourselves, when we do it slightly.
This the prophet complains of in some teachers ; Jer. vi. 14.
' They have healed the wound of the daughter of my people
slightly.' And it is so with some persons, they make the
healing of their wounds a slight work, a look, a glance of
faith to the promises does it, and so the matter is ended.
The apostle tells us, that the word did not profit some, be-
cause *it was not mixed with faith;' Heb. iv. 2. jui^ (jvyKeKpa-
fiivog, ' it was not well tempered' and mingled with faith. It
is not a mere look to the word of mercy in the promise, but
it must be mingled with faith, until it is incorporated into
the very nature of it; and then indeed it doth good unto the
soul : if thou hast had a wound upon thy conscience, which
was attended with weakness and disquietness, which now
thou art freed of, how camest thou so ? I looked to the pro-
mises of pardon and healing, and so found peace ; yea, but
perhaps thou hast made too much haste, thou hast done it
overtly, thou hast not fed upon the promise, so as to mix it
with faith, to have got all the virtue of it diffused into thy
soul; only thou hast done it slightly; thou wilt find thy
wound ere it be long breaking out again, and thou shalt
know that thou art not cured.
4. Whoever speaks peace to himself upon any one account,
and at the same time hath another evil of no less importance
lying upon his spirit, about which he hath had no dealing
with God, that man cries peace when there is none. A little
to explain my meaning : a man hath neglected a duty again
and again; perhaps when in all righteousness it was due
s Luke xxii. 52.
VOL. VII. 2 E
418 MORTiricATrox of six
from liira, his conscience is perplexed, his soul wounded, he
hath no quiet in his bones by reason of his sin ; he applies
himself for healing and finds peace. Yet in the meantime
perhaps worldliness, or pride, or some other folly, wherewith
the Spirit of God is exceedingly grieved, may lie in the bo-
som of that man, and they neither disturb him, nor he them.
Let not that man think that any of his peace is from God.
Then shall it be well with men when they have an equal re-
spect to all God's commandments. God will justify us from
our sins, but he will not justify the least sin in us ; ' he is a
God of purer eyes, than to behold iniquity.'
5. When men of themselves speak peace to their con-
sciences, it is seldom that God speaks humiliation to their
souls ; God's peace is humbling peace, melting peace, as it
was in the case of David j'' never such deep humiliation as
when Nathan brought him the tidings of his pardon.
But you will say, When may we take the comfort of a
promise as our own, in relation to some peculiar wound for
the quieting the heart?
1st. In general, when God speaks it, be it when it will,
sooner or later, I told you before, he may do it in the very instant
of the sin itself, and that with such irresistible power, that the
soul must needs receive his mind in it. Sometimes he will
make us wait longer ; but when he speaks, be it sooner or
later, be it when we are sinning or repenting, be the condi-
tion of our souls what they please, if God speak, he must be
received. There is not any thing, that in our communion
with him, the Lord is more troubled with us for, if I may so
say, than our unbelieving fears that keep us off from re-
ceiving that strong consolation which he is so willing to
give to us.
But you will say. We are where we were; when God
speaks it, we must receive it, that is true, but how shall we
know when he speaks?
1. I would we could all practically come up to this, to
receive peace when we are convinced that God speaks it, and
that it is our duty to receive it. But,
2. There is, if I may so say, a secret instinct in faith,
whereby it knows the voice of Christ, when he speaks in-
deed ; as the babe leaped in the womb, when the blessed
'' Psal. li. 1.
IN BELIEVERS, 419
virgin came to Elizabeth ; faith leaps in the heart when
Christ indeed draws nigh to it ; ' My sheep/ says Christ,
* know my voice ;' John x. 14. they know my voice, they are
used to the sound of it and they know when his lips are
opened to them, and are full of grace. The spouse was in a
sad condition. Cant. v. 2. asleep in security, but yet as soon
as Christ speaks, she cries, ' It is the voice of my beloved
that speaks ;' she knew his voice, and was so acquainted
with communion with him, that instantly she discovers him,
and so will you also ; if you exercise yourselves to ac-
quaintance and communion with him, you will easily dis-
cern between his voice and the voice of a stranger. And
take this Kpmjpiov with you ; when he doth speak, he speaks
as never man spake; he speaks with power, and one way or
other will make your hearts burn within you, as he did to
the disciples, Luke xxii. he doth it by putting in his hand
at the hole of the door, Cant. v. 4. his Spirit into your hearts
to seize on you.
He that hath his senses exercised to discern good or
evil, being increased in judgment and experience, by a con-
stant observation of the ways of Christ's intercourse, the
manner of the operations of the Spirit, and the effects it
usually produceth, is the best judge for himself in this case.
2ndly. If the word of the Lord doth good to your souls he
speaks it. If it humble, if it cleanse and be useful for those
ends, for which promises are given ; viz. to endear, to
cleanse, to melt and bind to obedience, to self-emptiness,
&c. But this is not my business ; nor shall I farther divert
in the pursuit of this direction ; without the observation of
it, sin will have great advantages towards the hardening of
the heart,
2 E 2
420 AIORTinCATION OF SIX
CHAP. XIV.
The general use of the foregoing directions. The great direction for the ac-
complishment of the work aimed at. Act faith on Christ ; the several
ways uherehy this may be done. Consideration of the fulness in Christ
for relief proposed. Great expectatiims from Christ ; grounds of these
expectations. His mercifulness, his faithfulness. Event of such expec-
tations. On the part of Christ. On the part of believers. Faith pecu-
liarly to be acted on the death of Christ ; Rom. vi. 3 — 6. The nork of
the Spirit in this whole business.
Now the considerations which I have hitherto insisted on
are rather of things preparatory to the work aimed at, than
such as will effect it. It is the heart's due preparation for
the work itself, without which it will not be accomplished,
that hitherto I have aimed at.
Directions for the work itself are very few ; I mean that
are peculiar to it. And they are these that follow.
1. Set faith at work on Christ for the killing of thy sin.
His blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls.
Live in this, and thou wilt die a conqueror. Yea, thou wilt
through the good providence of God, live to see thy lust
dead at thy feet.
But thou wilt say. How shall faith act itself on Christ for
this end and purpose ? I say sundry ways.
(1.) By faith fill thy soul with a due consideration of that
provision, which is laid up in Jesus Christ for this end and
purpose, that all thy lusts, this very lust wherewith thou art
entangled, may be mortified. By faith ponder on this, that
though thou art no way able in or by thyself, to get the con-
quest over thy distemper, though thou art even weary of
contending, and art utterly ""ready to faint, yet that there is
enough in Jesus Christ, to yield thee relief; Phil. iv. 13. It
staid the prodigal when he was ready to faint, that yet there
was bread enough in his father's house, though he was at a dis-
tance from it, yet it relieved him, and staid him, tha there
it was. In thy greatest distress and anguish, consider that
fulness of grace, those riches, those 'treasures of strength,
might, and help, that are laid up in him, for our support;
'' Luke xvi. 17. * Isa. xl. 28—31.
I>f BELIEVERS. 421
John i. 16. Col. i. 19. Let them corae into, and abide in thy
mind. Consider that he is exalted and made ' a prince and a
Saviour to give repentance unto Israel;' Acts v. 31. and if to
give repentance, to give mortification, without which the
other is not, nor can be. Christ tells us that we obtain
purging grace by abiding in him ; John xv. 3. To act faith
upon the fulness that is in Christ for our supply, is an emi-
nent way of abiding in Christ, for both our incision and
abode is by faith ; Rom. xi. 19, 20. Let then thy soul by
faith be exercised with such thoughts and apprehensions as
these :P am a poor, weak creature ; unstable as water, I can-
not excel ; this corruption is too hard for me, and is at the
very door of ruining my soul ; and what to do I know not;
my soul is become as parched ground and an habitation of
dragons ; I have made promises and broken them, vows and
engagements have been as a thing of nought ; many persua-
sions have I had, that I had got the victory and should be
delivered, but I am deceived ; so that I plainly see, ihat
without some eminent succour and assistance, I am lost,
and shall be prevailed on, to an utter relinquishment of God;
but yet though this be my state and condition, yet let the
hands that hang down be lifted up, and the feeble knees be
strengthened ; behold* the Lord Christ that hath all fulness
of grace in his heart, all fulness of power in his hand ; he is
able to slay all these his enemies. There is sufficient pro-
vision in him for my relief and assistance : he can take my
drooping dying soul and make me more than a conqueror.''
* Why sayest thou, O my soul, my way is hid from the Lord,
and my judgment is passed over from my God ? Hast thou
not known, hast thou not heard that the everlasting God,
the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not,
neither is weary ; there is no searching of his understanding;
he giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might
he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be *"
weary, and the young men shall utterly fail ; but they that
wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall
mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be
weary, they shall walk and not faint ;' Isa. xl. 49, &c. He
can make the dry parched ground of my soul to become a
pool, and my thirsty barren heart as springs of water : yea,
> John i. 16. MaU. xxviii. 18. ^ Koin. viii. 38.
422 MOKTIi-ICATIOX OF SIN
he can make this habitation of dragons, this heart, ko full of
abominable lusts, and fiery temptations, to be a place for
grass, and fruit to himself; Isa. xxxv. 7. So God staid
Paul under his temptation, with the consideration of the suf-
ficiency of his grace : * My grace is sufficient for thee ;'
2 Cor. xii. 9. Though he were not immediately so far made
partaker of it, as to be freed from his temptation, yet the
sufficiency of it in God, for that end and purpose, was enough
to stay his spirit. I say then, by faith, be much in the con-
sideration of that supply and the fulness of it, that is in
Jesus Christ; and how he can at any time give thee strength
and deliverance. Now if hereby thou dost not find success
to a conquest, yet thou wilt be staid in the chariot, that thou
shalt not fly out of the field until the battle be ended ; thou
wilt be kept from an utter despondency, and a lying down
under thy unbelief ; or a turning aside to false means and re-
medies that in the issue will not relieve thee. The efficacy
of this consideration will be found only in the practice.
(2.) Raise up thy heart by faith to an expectation of relief
from Christ ; relief in this case from Christ is like the pro-
phet's vision ; Hab. ii. 3. * It is for an appointed time, but at
the end it shall speak, and not lie ; though it tarry, yet wait
for it, because itw ill surely come, it will not tarry ;' though it
may seem somewhat long to thee, whilst thou art under thy
trouble and perplexity, yet it shall surely come in the appoint-
ed time of the Lord Jes'us, which is the best season. If then
thou canst raise up thy heart to a settled expectation of relief
from Jesus Christ, if thine eyes are towards him, as the eyes of
a * servant to the hand of his master,'' when he expects to re-
ceive somewhat from him, thy soul shall be satisfied, he will
assuredly deliver thee f he will slay the lust, and thy latter
end shall be peace ; only look for it, at his hand, expect
when and how he will do it. If you will not believe, surely
ye shall not be established.
But wilt thou say. What ground have I to build such
an expectation upon, so that I may expect not to be de-
ceived ?
As thou hast necessity to put thee on this course, thou
must be relieved and saved this way or none; to" whom wilt
' Psal. cxxiii. 2. >" Isa. vii, 8. » John vi. 68.
IN BELIEVERS. 423
thou go ? so there are in the Lord Jesus ianuraerable things
to encourage and engage thee to this expectation.
For the necessity of it, I have in part discovered it before,
when I manifested that this is the work of faith, and of be-
lievers only. ' Without me,' says Christ/ you can do nothing;'
John XV. 15. speaking with especial relation to the purging
of the heart from sin; ver. 2. mortification of any sin, must
be by a supply of grace. Of ourselves we cannot do it.
' Now it hath pleased the Father tliat in Christ all fulness
shojild dwell;' Col. i. 19. 'that of his fulness we might receive
grace for grace ;' John i. 16. He is the head, from whence
the new man must have influences of life and strength, or it
will decay every day. If °we are strengthened with might in
the inner man, it is by Christ's dwelling in our hearts by
faith; Eph. iii. 16, 17. That this work is not to be done
vyithout the Spirit, I have also shewed before. Whence then
do we expect the Spirit? From whom do we look for him?
Who hath promised him to us, having procured him for us ?
Ought not all our expectations to this purpose to be on
Christ alone ? Let this then be fixed upon thy heart, that if
thou hast not relief from him, thou shalt never have any : all
ways, endeavours, con tendings, that are not animated by this
expectation of relief from Christ and him only, are to no
purpose, will do thee no good : yea, if they are any thing
but supportments of thy heart in this expectation, or means
appointed by himself, for the receiving help from him, they
are in vain.
Now farther to engage thee to this expectation :
[1.] Consider his mercifulness, tenderness, and kindness,
as he is our great high-priest, at the right hand of God.
Assuredly he pities thee in thy distress ; saith he, ' As one
whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you ;' Isa.
Ixvi. 13. He hath the tenderness of a mother to a sucking-
child. Heb. ii. 17, 18. 'Wherefore in all things it behoved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that lie might be a
merciful and faithful high-priest in things pertaining to
God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people ; for
in that himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to
succour them that are tempted :' how is the ability of CJirist
upon the account of his suffering proposed to us? ' In that
' Col. i. 11,
424 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able.' Did
the sufferings and temptations of Christ add to his ability
and power? Not doubtless, considered absolutely and in it
itself; but the ability here mentioned, is such as hath rea-
diness, proneness, willingness, to put itself forth accompa-
nying of it; it is an ability of will against all dissuasions ;
he is able having suffered and being tempted, to break
through all dissuasions to the contrary, to relieve poor
tempted souls : ^vvarai /3o?)2r»lo-at, * He is able to help.' It
is a metonomy of the effect. For he can now be moved to
help having been so tempted. So chap. iv. 15, 16. ' For we
have not a high-priest which cannot be touched with the
feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like
as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find
grace to help in time of need.' The exhortation of ver. 16.
is the same that I am upon ; namely, that we would entertain
expectations of relief from Christ, which the apostle there
calls x«P*v £'C iVKaipov (5oi]^£iav ' grace for seasonable help ;'
if ever, says the soul, help were seasonable, it would be so to
me in my present condition. This is that which I long for,
grace for seasonable help. I am ready to die, to perish, to
be lost for ever ; iniquity will prevail against me, if help
come not in, says the apostle, expect this help, this relief,
this grace from Christ ; yea, but on what account ? That
which he lays down, ver. 15. and we may observe that the
word, ver. 16. which we have translated to obtain, is Xa/3w-
fiev,"iva Xaj3w/i£v e'Aeov, ' that we may receive it,' suitable and
seasonable help will come in. I shall freely say, this one thing
of establishing the soul by faith in expectation of relief from
Jesus Christ,? on the account of his mercifulness as our high-
priest, will be more available to the ruin of thy lust and dis-
temper, and have a better and speedier issue, than all the
rigidest means of self-maceration, that ever any of the sons
of men engaged themselves into. Yea, let me add, that
never any soul did, or shall perish by the power of any lust,
sin, or corruption, who could raise his soul by faith to an
expectation of relief from Jesus Christ.''
[2.] Consider his faithfulness who hath promised, which
may raise thee up and confirm thee in this waiting in an ex-
P Matt. xi. 28. 1 Isa. Iv. I— .'5. Rev. iii. 18.
IN BELIEVERS. 425
pectation of relief. He hath promised to relieve in such
cases 'and he will fulfil his word to the utmost. God tells
us that his covenant with us, is like the ordinances of hea-
ven, the sun, moon, and stars, which have their certain
courses ; Jer. xxxi. 36. Thence David said that he watched
for relief from God, ' as one watched for the morning,'r a
thing that will certainly come in its appointed season ; so
will be thy relief from Christ. It will come in its season
as the dew and rain upon the parched ground ; for faithful
is he who hath promised. Particular,promises to this pur-
pose are innumerable, with some of them, that seem pecu-
liarly to suit his condition, let the soul be always fur-
nished.
Now there are two eminent advantages which always
attend this expectation of succour from Jesus Christ.
1st. It engages him to a full and speedy assistance ; no-
thing doth more engage the heart of a man, to be useful
and helpful to another, than his expectation of help from
him, if justly raised and countenanced by him who is to
give the relief. Our Lord Jesus hath raised our hearts by
his kindness, care, and promises, to this expectation ; cer-
tainly our rising up unto it, must needs be a great engage-
ment upon him to assist us accordingly. This the psalmist
gives us as an approved maxim, * Thou Lord never forsakest
them that put their trust in thee.' When the heart is once
won to rest in God, to repose himself on him, he will as-
suredly satisfy it. He will never be as water that fails, nor
hath he said at any time to the seed of Jacob, ' Seek ye my
face in vain.' If Christ be chosen for the foundation of our
supply he will not fail us.
2dly. It engages the heart to attend diligently to all
ways and means whereby Christ is wont to communicate
himself to the soul ; and so takes in the real assistance of
all graces and ordinances whatever. He that expects any
thing from a man, applies himself to the ways and means
whereby it may be obtained. The beggar that expects an
alms, lies at his door or in his way, from whom he doth ex-
pect it. The way whereby, and the means wherein Christ
communicates himself is, and are, his ordinances ordinarily;
he that expects any thing from him, must attend upon him
" Psal. cxxx. 6.
426 MORTIFICATIOX OF SIN
therein. It is the expectation of faith that sets the heart
on work. It is not an idle groundless hope that I speak of.
If now there be any vigour, efficacy, and power, in prayer
or sacrament to this end of mortifying sin, a man will as-
suredly be interested in it all, by this expectation of relief
from Christ. On this account I reduce all particular act-
ings, by prayer, meditation, and the like to this head ; and
so shall not farther insist on them when they are grounded
on this bottom and spring from this root; they are of sin-
gular use to this purpose ; and not else.
Now on this direction for the mortification of a prevail-
ing distemper you may have a thousand * probatum est's ;'
Who have walked with God under this temptation and have
not found the use and success of it? I dare leave the soul
under it, without adding any more. Only some particulars
relating thereunto may be mentioned.
[2.] Act faith peculiarly upon the death, blood, and cross
of Christ; that is, on Christ as crucified and slain; mortifi-
cation of sin is peculiarly from the death of Christ. It is
one peculiar, yea, eminent end of the death of Christ, which
shall assuredly be accomplished by it. He died to destroy
the works of the devil ; whatever came upon our natures
by his first temptation, whatever receives strength in our
persons by his daily suggestions, Christ died to destroy it
all. ' He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from
all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zea-
lous of good works;' Tit. ii. 14. This was his aim and in-
tendment (wherein he will not fail), in his giving himself
for us. That we might be freed from the power of our sins,
and purified from all our defiling lusts was his design. * He
gave himself for the church, that he might sanctify and
cleanse it, that he might present it to himself a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but
that it should be holy and without blemish ;' Eph. v. 25 — 27.
And this, by virtue of his death, in various and several de-
grees shall be accomplished. Hence our washing, purging,
and cleansing, is every where, ascribed to his blood ; 1 John
i. 7. Heb. i. 3. Rev. i. 5. That being sprinkled on us,
' purges our consciences from dead works to serve the living
God;' Heb. ix. 14. This is that we aim at, this we are in
l)ursuit of; that our consciences may be purged from dead
IN BELIKVEiiS. 427
works, that they may be rooted out, destroyed, and have
place ill us no more. This shall certainly be brought about
by the death of Christ ; there will virtue go out from thence
to this purpose. Indeed all supplies of the Spirit, all com-
munications of grace and power are from hence, as I have
elsewhere" shewed. Thus the apostle states it; Rom.vi. 2.
is the case proposed that we have in hand ; * How shall we
that are dead in sin live any longer therein?' Dead to sin
by profession ; dead to sin by obligation to be so ; dead to
sin by a participation of virtue and power for the killing of
it; dead to sinby union andinterestin Christ, inandby whom
it is killed; how shall we live therein? This he presses by
sundry considerations, all taken from the death of Christ,
in the ensuing verses. This must not be : ver. 3. * Know
you not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus
Christ were baptized into his death?' We have in baptism
an evidence of our implantation into Christ; we are bap-
tized into him ; but what of him are we baptized into an in-
terest in ? His death, saith he ; if indeed we are baptized
into Christ, and beyond outward profession, we are bap-
tized into his death. The explication of this, of one being
baptized into the death of Christ, the apostle gives us, ver.
4. 6. * Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into
death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by
the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in new-
ness of life. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with
him that the body of sin might be destroyed, that hence-
forth we should not serve sin.' This is, saith he, our
being baptized into the death of Christ; namely, our con-
formity thereunto. To be dead unto sin, to have our
corruptions mortified, as he was put to death for sin ; so
that as he was raised up to glory, we may be raised up to
grace and newness of life. He tells us whence it is that we
have this baptism into the death of Christ, ver. 6. and this
is from the death of Christ itself; ' Our old man is crucified
with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed ;' <tv-
veaTavpw^T], ' is crucified with him ;' not in respect of time,
but causality ; we are crucified with him, meritoriously, in
that he procured the Spirit for us, to mortify sin; efficiently,
' Comraunioii with Christ, chap. 7, 8.
428 MORTIFICATION OF SIN
in that from his death virtue comes forth for our crucifying,
in the way of representation and exemplars we shall assuredly
be crucified unto sin, as he was for our sin. This is that the
apostle intends; Christ by his death destroying the works
of the devil, procuring the Spirit for us, hath so killed sin,
as to its reign in believers, that it shall not obtain its end
and dominion.
Then act faith on the death of Christ, and that under
these two notions : First, In expectation of power ; second-
ly. In endeavours for conformity". For the first, the direc-
tion given in general may suffice ; as to the latter, that of
the apostle may give us some light into our direction ; Gal.
iii. 1. Let faith look on Christ in the gospel as he is set forth
dying and crucified for us. Look on him under the weight''
of our sins, praying, bleeding, dying : bring him in that
condition into thy heart by faith ; apply his blood so shed to
thy corruptions ; do this daily. I might draw out this con-
sideration to a great length, in sundry particulars, but I
must come to a close.
I have only then to add the heads of the work of the
Spirit in this business of mortification, which is so peculi-
arly ascribed to him.
[2.] In one word : this whole work which I have described
as our duty, is effected, carried on, and accomplished by
the power of the Spirit, in all the parts and degrees of
it; as
1st. He alone clearly and fully convinces the heart of the
evil and guilt and danger of the corruption, lust, or sin to be
mortified. Without this conviction, or whilst it is faint, that
the heart can wrestle with it, or dii^est it, there will be no
thorough work made. An unbelieving heart (as in part we
have all such) will shift with any consideration, until it be
over-powered by clear and evident convictions : now this is
the proper work of the Spirit, * he convinces of sin ;' John
xvi. 8. he alone can do it ; if men's rational considerations,
v/ith the preaching of the letter, were able to convince them
of sin, we should, it may be, see more convictions than we
do. There comes by the preaching of the word and appre-
=> Philip, iii. 10. Col. iii. 3. I Pet. i. 18.
'' 1 Cor. XV. 31. l.Pct. i. 16. v. 1, -i. Col. i. 3.
IN BELIEVEUS. 429
liension upon the understandings of men that they are sin-
ners, that such and such things are sins, that themselves are
guilty of them ; but this light is not powerful, nor doth it
lay hold on the practical principles of the soul, so as to con-
form the mind and will unto them, to produce effects suit-
able to such an apprehension. And therefore it is, that wise
and knowing men, destitute of the Spirit, do not think those
things to be sins at all, wherein the chief movings and act-
ings of lust do consist. It is the Spirit alone that can do,
that doth this work to the purpose. And this is the first
thing that the Spirit doth in order to the mortification of
any lust whatever; it convinces the soul of all the evil of it;
cuts off all its pleas, discovers all its deceits, stops all its
evasions, answers its pretences, makes the soul own its abo-
mination, and lie down under the sense of it. Unless this
be done all that follows is in vain.
2dly. The Spirit alone reveals unto us the fulness of
Christ for our relief, which is the consideration that stays
the heart from false ways, and from despairing despondency ;
1 Cor. ii.8.
3dly. The Spirit alone establishes the heart in expecta-
tion of relief from Christ; which is the great sovereign
means of mortification, as hath been discovered ; 2 Cor.
i. 21.
4thly. The Spirit alone brings the cross of Christ into
our hearts, with its sin-killing power ; for by the Spirit are
we baptized into the death of Christ.
5thly. The Spirit is the author and finisher of our sanc-
tification ; gives new supplies and influences of grace for ho-
liness and sanctification, when the contrary principle is
weakened and abated ; Eph. iii. 16 — 18.
6thly. In all the soul's addresses to God in this condi-
tion, it hath supportment from the Spirit. Whence is the
pov^^er, life, and vigour of prayer? Whence its efficacy to
prevail with God? Is it not from the Spirit ? He is the Spi-
rit of supplication promised to them, * who look on him whom
they have pierced,' Zech. xii. 10. enabling them * to pray
with sighs and groans that cannot be uttered;' Rom. viii. 16.
This is confessed to be the great medium or way of faith's
prevailing with God. Thus Paul dealt with his temptation,
430 MORTIFICATIOX OF SIV
whatever it were ; ' I besoiiglit God that it might depart
from me/ What is the work of the Spirit in prayer, whence,
and how it gives us in assistance, and makes us to prevail,
what we are to do that we may enjoy his help for that pur-
pose, is not my present intendment to demonstrate.
« 2 Cor. xii. 8.
OF
TEMPTATION:
THE
NATURE AND POWER OF IT;
THE
DANGER OF ENTERING INTO IT;
AND
THE MEANS OF PREVENTING THAT DANGER:
WITH
A RESOLUTION OF SUNDRY CASES
THEREUNTO BELONGING.
Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I will also keep thee from the hour of
temptation, rchich shall come upon all the ivorld, to try them that dwell vpon the
earth. — Rev. iii. 10.
TO THE READER.
Christian Reader,
If thou art in any measure awake in these days, wherein
we live, and hast taken notice of the manifold, great,
and various temptations wherewith all sorts of persons,
that know the Lord, and profess his name, are beset,
and whereunto they are continually exposed ; with
what success those temptations have obtained to the
unspeakable scandal of the gospel, with the wounding
and ruin of innumerable souls ; I suppose thou wilt
not inquire any farther after other reasons of the pub-
lishing of the ensuing warnings and directions; being
suited to the times that pass over us, and thine own
concernment in them. This I shall only say to those
who think meet to persist in any such inquiry, that
though my first engagement for the exposing of these
meditations unto public view, did arise from the desires
of some, whose avouching the interest of Christ in the
world by personal holiness, and constant adhering to
every thing that is made precious by its relation to him,
have given them power over me, to require at any time
services of greater importance ; yet I dare not lay my
doing of it so upon that account, as in the least to inti-
mate, that with respect to the general state of things
mentioned, I did not myself esteem it seasonable and
necessary. The variety of outward providences and
VOL. VI 1. 2 F
CCCCXXXiv TO THE READER.
dispensations, wherewith I hc.ve myself been exercised
in this world, with the inward trials they have been
attended withal, added to the observation that I have
had advantages to make of the ways and walkings of
others ; their beginnings, progresses, and endings; their
risings and falls in profession, and conversation, in
darkness and light, have left such a constant sense and
impression of the power and danger of temptations
upon my mind and spirit, that without other pleas and
pretences, I cannot but own a serious call unto men to
beware, with a discovery of some of the most eminent
ways and means of the prevalency of present tempta-
tions, to have been in my own judgment, in this season,
needful. But now, reader, if thou art amongst them
who takest no notice of these things, or carest not for
them, who hast no sense of the efficacy and dangers of
temptations in thine own walking and profession, nor
hast observed the power of them upon others ; who
discernest not the manifold advantages that they have
got in these days, wherein all things are shaken ; nor
hast been troubled or moved for the sad successes they
had amongst professors ; but supposest that all things
are well within doors, and without, and would be better,
couldst thou obtain fuller satisfaction to some of thy
lusts, in the pleasures or profits of the world, I desire
thee to know, that I write not for thee, nor do esteem
thee a fit reader or judge of what is here written.
Whilst all the issues of providential dispensations, in
reference to the public concernments of these nations
are perplexed and entangled, the footsteps of God lyino-
in the deep, where his paths are not known ; whilst ia
particular, unparalleled distresses, and strange pros-
TO THE READER. CCCCXXXY
perities are measured out to men, yea to professors ;
whilst a spirit of error, giddiness, and delusion, goes
forth with such strength and efficacy, as it seems to
have received a commission to go and prosper ; whilst
there are such divisions, strifes, emulations, attended
with such evil surmises, wrath, and revenge, found
amongst brethren ; whilst the desperate issues and pro-
ducts of men's temptations are seen daily in partial and
total apostacy, in the decay of love, the overthrow of
faith, our days being filled with fearful examples of
backsliding, such as former ages never knew ; whilst
there is a visible declension from reformation seizing
upon the professing party of these nations, both as to
personal holiness, and zeal for the interest of Christ.
He that understands not that there is an hour of temp-
tation come upon the world to try them that dwell in
the earth, is doubtless either himself at present capti-
vated under the power of some woful lust, corruption,
or temptation, or is indeed stark blind, and knows not
at all what it is to serve God in temptations. With such,
then, I have not at present to do ; for those who have in
general a sense of these things, who also in some mea-
sure are able to consider that the plague is begun, that
they may be farther awakened to look about them
lest the infection have approached nearer to them by
some secret and imperceptible ways, than they did ap-
prehend ; or lest they should be surprised at unawares
hereafter by any of those temptations that in these days
either waste at noon, or else walk in darkness, is the en-
suing warning intended ; and for the sake of them that
mourn in secret, for all the abominations that are found
among, and upon them that profess the gospel, and
2 F 2
CCeCXXXVl TO THE READER.
who are under the conduct of the captain of their sal-
vation, fighting and resisting the power of temptations,
from what spring soever they rise, in themselves, are
the ensuing directions proposed to consideration.
Tliat our faithful and merciful High Priest, who both
suffered and was tempted, and is on that account
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, would ac-
company this small discourse with seasonable supplies
of his Spirit, and suitable mercy to them that shall con-
sider it, that it may be useful to his servants for the
ends whereunto it is designed, is the prayer of him,
who received this handful of seed from his storehouse
and treasure.
JOHN OWEN.
OP
TEMPTATION:
THE
NATURE AND POWER OF IT, &<:.
CHAP. I.
The words of the text, that are the foundation of the ensuing discourse. The
occasion of the woi-ds, with their dependance ; the things specially aimed
at in them. Things considerable in the uords as to the general pirrpose in
hand. Of the (general nature of temptation tcherein it consists. The spe-
cial nature of temptation. Temptation tahen actively and passively. How
God tempts any. His ends in so doing: Tlie way whereby he doth it : of
temptation in its special nature: of the actions of it. The true nature of
temptation stated.
Watch and pray that y-ovi enter not into temptation.
Matt. xxvi. 41.
These words of our Saviour are repeated with very little
alteration in tliree evangelists ; only whereas Matthew and
Mark have recorded them as above written, Luke reporteth
them thus ; * Arise and pray that you enter not into temp-
tation ;' so that the whole of his caution seems to have been ;
arise, watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation.
Solomon tells us of some, that * lie down on the top of a
mast in the midst of the sea;' Prov. xxiii. 34. Men over-
borne by security in the mouth of destruction. If ever poor
souls lay down on the top of a mast in the midst of the sea,
these disciples with our Saviour in the garden did so. Their
master, at a little distance from them, was offering up prayers
and supplications with strong cries, and tears ; Heb. v. 4.
being then taking into his hand, and beginning to^ taste that
cup that was filled with the curse and wrath due to their
sins. The Jews armed for his and their destruction, being
a Heb. ii. 9. Gal. iii. 13. 2 Cor. v. 21.
438 OF TEMPTATIOX.
but a little more distant from them, on the other hand. Our
Saviour had a little before, informed them, that that night he
should be betrayed, and be delivered up to be slain ; they
saw that he was sorrowful, and very heavy ; ver. 37. Nay,
he told them plainly, that his ' soul was exceeding sorrowful
even unto death ;' ver. 83. and therefore entreated them
to tarry, and watch with him, now he was dying, and that for
them. In this condition, leaving them but a little space, like
men forsaken of all love towards him, or care of themselves,
they fall fast asleep. Even the best of saints, being left to
themselves, will quickly appear to be less than men, to be
nothinsr. All our own strength is weakness, and all our wis-
dom folly. Peter being one of them, who but a little before,
had with so much self-confidence affirmed, that though all
men forsook him, yet he never would so do ; our Saviour
expostulates the matter in particular with him ; ver. 40. ' He
saith unto Peter, could younotwatch with me one hour?' as if
he should have said, Art thou he, Peter, who but now boast-
edst of thy resolution, never to forsake me ? Is it likely that
thou shouldst hold out therein, when thou canst not watch
with me one hour ? Is this thy dying for me ; to be dead in
security, when I am dying for thee ? And indeed it would be
an amazing thing, to consider that Peter should make so
high a promise, and be immediately so careless and remiss
•in the pursuit of it; but that we find the root of the same
treachery abiding and working in our own hearts, and do see
the fruit of it brought forth every day : the most noble en-
gagements unto obedience, quickly ending in deplorable
negligence; Rom. vii. 18.
In this estate our Saviour admonishes them of their con-
dition, their weakness, their danger, and stirs them up to a
prevention of that ruin, which lay at the door : saith he,
' Arise, watch and pray.'
I shall not insist on the particular aimed at here by our
Saviour, in this caution to them that were then present with
him; the great temptation that was coming on them, from the
scandal of the cross, was doubtless in his eye ; but I shall
consider the words as containing a general direction to all
the disciples of Christ, in their following of him throughout
all generations.
There are three things in the words :
OF TEMPTATION. 439
First, The evil cautioned against : temptation.
Secondly, The means of its prevalency ; by our entering
into it.
Thirdly, The way of preventing- it; watch and pray.
It is not in my thoughts to handle the common-place of
temptation, but only the danger of them in general, with the
means of preventing that danger. Yet that w^e may know
what we affirm, and whereof we speak, some concernments
of the general nature of temptation may be premised.
First, For the general nature of tempting and temptation,
it lies among things indifi'ereat ; to try, to experiment, to
prove, to pierce a vessel, that the liquor that is in it may be
known, is as much as is signified by it. Hence God is said
sometime to tempt ; and we are commanded as our duty to
tempt, or try, or search ourselves, to know what is in us ;
and to pray that God would do so also. So temptation is
like a knife, that may either cut the meat, or the throat of a
man; it may be his food or his poison, his exercise or his
destruction.
Secondly, Temptation in its special nature, as it denotes
any evil, is considered, either actively, as it leads to evil, or
passively, as it hath an evil and suffering in it ; so temptation
is taken for affliction ; James, i. 2. For in that sense, we
are to count it all joy when we fall into temptation, in the
other, that we enter not into it.
Again, actively considered, it either denotes in the tempter,
a design for the bringing about of the special end of temp-
tation, namely, a leading into evil ; so it is said, that * God
tempts no man,' James i. 13. w^ith a design for sin, as such :
or the general nature, and end of temptation, which is trial ;
so God tempted Abraham ; Gen. xxi. 1. And he proveth or
tempteth by false prophets ; Dent. xiii. 3.
IS^ow as to God's tempting of any, two things are to be
considered :
1. The end why he doth it.
2. The way whereby he doth it.
For the first, his general ends are two :
(1.) He doth it to shew unto man what is in him, that is,
the man himself: and that either as to his grace, or to his cor-
ruption (I speak not now of it, as it may have a place and
bear a part in judiciary obduration). Grace and corruption
440 OF TEMPTATION.
lie deep in the heart; men oftentimes deceive themselves in
the search after the one, or the other of them. When we
give vent to the soul, to try what grace is there, corruption
comes out; and when we search for corruption, grace ap-
pears ; so is the soul ]:ept in uncertainty : we fail in our
trials. God comes with a gage, that goes to the bottom.
He sends his instruments of trial into the bowels, and the in-
most parts of the soul, and lets man see what is in him, of
what metal he is constituted. Thus he tempted Abraham,
to shew him his faith. Abraham knew not what faith he
liad (I mean, what power and vigour was in his faith) until
God drew it out by that great trial and temptation;'' when
God says he knew it, he made Abraham know it. So he tried
Hezekiah, to discover his pride : God left him that he might
see what was in his heart; 2 Chron. xxxii. 31. he knew not
that he had such a proud heart; so apt to be lifted up, as he
appeared to have, until God tried him, and so let out his
filth, and poured it out before his face. The issues of such
discoveries to the saints in thankfulness, humiliation, and
treasuring up of experiences, I shall not treat of.
(2.) God doth it to shew himself unto man, and that,
[1.] In a way of preventing grace; a man shall see that it
is God alone who keeps from all sin. Until we are tempted,
we think we live on our own strength. Though all men do
this or that, we will not. When the trial conies, we quickly
see, whence is our preservation by standing, or falling. So
was it in the case of Abiraeleck; Gen. xxiii. 6. ' I withheld
thee.'
[2.] In a way of renewing grace. He would have the
temptation continue with St. Paul, that he might reveal
himself to him in the sufficiency of his renewing grace;
2 Cor. xii. 9. We know not the power and strength that
God puts forth in our behalf, nor what is the sufficiency of
his grace, until comparing the temptation with our own
weakness, it appears unto us. The efficacy of an antidote
is found when poison hath been taken, and the preciousness
of medicines is made known by diseases. We shall never
know what strength there is in grace, if we know not what
strength there is in temptation. We must be tried, that we
may be made sensible of being preserved. And many other
'' Gen. xxii. 12.
OF TEMPTATIOK. 441
good and gracious ends he hath, which he accomplisheth to-
wards his saints by his trials and temptations, not now to
be insisted on.
2. For the ways whereby God accomplisheth this his
search, trial, or temptation, these are some of them :
(1.) He puts men on great duties, such as they cannot
apprehend that they have any strength for, nor indeed have.
So he tempted Abraham, by calling him to that duty of sa-
crificing his Son ; a thing absurd to reason, bitter to nature,
and grievous to him on all accounts whatever. Many men
know not what is in them, or rather what is ready for them,
until they are put upon what seems utterly above their
strength ; indeed, upon what is really above their strength.
The duties that God in an ordinary way requires atour hands,
are not proportioned to what strength we have in our-
selves, but to what help and relief is laid up for us in Christ ;
and we are to address ourselves to the greatest performances,
with a settled persuasion that we have not ability for the
least. This is the law of grace 5 but yet when any duty is re-
quired that is extraordinary, that is a secret not often dis-
covered; in the yoke of Christ it is a trial, a temptation.
(2.) By putting them upon great sufferings. How many
have unexpectedly found strength to die at a stake, to en-
dure tortures for Christ ; yet their call to it was a trial.
This Peter tells, us is one way whereby we are brought into
trying temptations ; 1 Pet. i. 6, 7. our temptations arise
from the fiery trial, and yet the end is but a trial of our
faith.
(3.) By his providential disposing of things so, as that
occasions unto sin will be administered unto men, which is
the case mentioned, Deut. xiii. 3. and innumerable other in-
stances may be adjoined.
Now they are not properly the temptations of God, as
coming from him, with his end upon them that are here in-
tended : and therefore I shall set these apart from our present
consideration ; that is then temptation in its special na-
ture, as it denotes an active efficiency towards sinning (as it
is managed with evil, unto evil) that I intend.
In this sense, temptation may proceed either singly from
Satan, or the world, or other men in the world, or from our-
442 OF TEMPTATION.
selves, or jointly from all, or some of them, in their several
combinations.
[1.] Satan tempts sometimes singly by himself, without
taking advantage from the world, the things, or persons of
it, or ourselves. So he deals in his injection of evil and blas-
phemous thoughts of God, into the hearts of the saints;
which is his own work alone, without any advantage from
the world, or our own hearts. For nature will contribute
nothing thereunto, nor any thing that is in the world, nor
any man of the world; for none can conceive a God and
conceive evil of him. Herein Satan is alone in the sin and
shall be so in the punishment. These fiery darts are pre-
pared in the forge of his own malice, and shall with all
their venom and poison be turned into his own heart for
ever.
[2.] Sometimes he makes use of the world, and joins
forces against us ; without any helps from within. So he
tempted our Saviour, by shewing him the kingdoms of the
world, and the glory of them.' And the variety of the as-
sistances he finds from the world, in persons, and things
which 1 must not insist on, the innumerable instruments and
weapons he takes from thence of all sorts, and at all seasons,
are inexpressible.
[3.] Sometimes he takes in assistance from ourselves
also. It is not with us, as it was with Christ, when Satan
came to tempt him, he declares that he 'had nothing in him;'
John xiv. 30. It is otherwise with us : he hath, for the com-
passing of most of his ends, a sure party within our own
breasts; James i. 14, 15. Thus he tempted Judas ; he was at
work himself; he put it into his heart to betray Christ;
Luke xxii. 3. he entered into him for that purpose, and he
sets the world at work, the things of it, providing for him
thirty pieces of silver;' ver. 5. 'They covenanted to give
him money;' and the men of it, even the priests and the
Pharisees; and calleth in the assistance of his own corrup-
tion ; he was covetous, a thief, and had the bag.
I might also shew, how the world had our own corrup-
tions to act singly by themselves, and jointly in conjunction
with Seitan, and one another in this business of temptation.
But the truth is ; the principles, ways, and means, of temp-
« RIatt. iv. 8.
OF TEMPTATION. 443
tations, the kinds, degrees, efficacy, and causes of them, are
so inexpressibly large, and various, the circumstances of
them from providence, natures, conditions, spiritual, and na-
tural, with the particular cases thence arising, so innumerable
and impossible to be comprized within my bound or order ;
that to attempt the giving an account of them, would be to
undertake that which would be endless. I shall content
myself to give a description of the general nature of that
which we are to watch against; which will make way for
what I aim at.
Temptation then in general, is any thing, state, way, or
condition, that upon any account whatever, hath a force or
efficacy to seduce, to draw the mind and heart of a man from
its obedience which God requires of him, into any sin, in
any degree of it whatever.
In particular, that is a temptation to any man, which
causes or occasions him to sin, or in any thing to go off
from his duty, either by bringing evil into his heart, or draw-
ing out that evil that is in his heart, or any other way di-
verting him from communion with God, and that constant,
equal, universal obedience, in matter and manner, that is
required of hira.
For the clearing of this description, I shall only observe,
that though temptation seems to be of a more active import-
ance, and so to denote only the power of seduction to sin
itself, yet in the Scripture it is commonly taken in a neuter
sense, and denotes the matter of the temptation, or the thing
whereby we are tempted. And this is a ground of the de-
scription I have given of it; be it what it will, that from any
thing whatever, within us, or without us, hath advantage to
hinder in duty, or to provoke unto, or in any way to occa-
sion sin, that is a temptation, and so to be looked on ; be it
business, employment, course of life, company, affections,
nature, or corrupt design, relations, delights, name, reputa-
tion, esteem, abilities, parts or excellencies -of body or mind,
place, dignity, art, so far as they further, or occasion the pro-
motion of the ends before mentioned, they are all of them
no less truly temptations, than the most violent solicitations
of Satan, or allurements of the world ; and that soul lies
at the brink of ruin, who discerns it not ; and this will be
farther discovered in our process.
444 OF TEMPTATrOX.
CHAP. II.
What it is t-o enter into temptation. Not barely being tempted. Not to be
conquered by it. To fall into it. The force of t/iat expression. Things
required unto enteriny into temptation. Satan or lust nioi-e than ordina-
rily importunate. The soul's entanylemenl. Seasons of svh entangle-
ments discovered. Of the hour of temptation. Rev. iii. 18. what it is.
How any temptation comes to its hour. How it may be hnotvn when it is
so come. The means of prevention prescribed by our Saviour. Of
watching, and what is intended thereby. Of prayer.
Having shewed what temptation is, I come secondly, To
manifest what it is to enter into temptation.
1. Tliis is not merely to be tempted : it is impossible
that we should be so freed from temptation, as not to be at
all tempted. Whilst Satan continues in his power and ma-
lice, whilst the world and lust are in being, we shall be tempt-
ed : Christ, says one, was made like unto us, that he might
be tempted; and we are tempted that we may be made like unto
Christ : temptation in general is comprehensive of our whole
warfare ; as our Saviour calls the time of his ministry, the
time of* his temptation;* Luke xxii. 21. We have no pro-
mise that we shall not be tempted at all, nor are to pray
for an absolute freedom from temptations, because we have
no such promise of being heard therein. The direction we
have for our prayers, is, ' Lead us not into temptation ;'
Matt. vi. 9. it is ' entering into temptation/ that we are
to pray against : we may be tempted, yet not enter into
temptation. So that,
2. Something more is intended by this expression, than
the ordinary work of Satan, and our own lusts, which will
be sure to tempt us every day. There is something signal
in this entering into temptation, that is not the saints' every
day's work : it is something that befalls them peculiarly in
reference to seduction unto sin, on one account or other, by
the way of allurement or affrightment.
3. It is not to be conquered by a temptation ; to fall
down under it ; to commit the sin or evil that we are tempt-
ed to, or to omit the duties that are opposed. A man may
enter into temptation, and yet not fall under temptation.
God can make a way for a man to escape, when he is in, he
OF TEMPTATION. 445
can break the snare, tread down Satan, and make the soul
more than a conqueror, though it have entered into tempta-
tion : Christ entered into it, but was not in the least foiled
by it. But,
4. It is as the apostle expresseth it, 1 Tim. vi. 9. Ifi-
TTiTTTeiv, ' to fall into temptation;' as a man falls into a pit
or deep place, where are gins and snares, wherewith he is
entangled, the man is not presently killed and destroyed,
but he is entangled and detained, he knows not how to get
free, or be at liberty. So it is expressed again to the same
purpose, 1 Cor. x. 13. ' no temptation hath taken you :' that
is, to be taken by a temptation, and to be tangled with it,
held in its cords, not finding at present a way to escape.
Thence saith Peter, 2 Eph. ii. 9. 'The Lord knoweth how to
deliver the godly out of temptations :' they are entangled with
them, God knows how to deliver them out of them. When
we suffer a temptation to enter into us, then we enter into
temptation : whilst it knocks at the door, we are at liberty ;
but when any temptation comes in, and parlies with the
heart, reasons with the mind, entices and allures the affec-
tions, be it long or a short time, do it thus insensibly and
imperceptibly, or do the soul take notice of it, we enter into
temptation.
So then, unto oar entering into temptation is required,
(1.) That by some advantage, or on some occasion, Sa-
tan be more earnest than ordinary in his solicitations to sin,
by affrightments or allurements, by persecutions or seduc-
tions, by himself or others; or that some lust or corruption
by his instigation, and advantages of outward objects pro-
voking, as in prosperity, or terrifying, as in trouble, do tu-
multuate more than ordinary within us. There is a special
acting of the author, and principles of temptation, required
thereunto.
(2.) That the heart be so far entangled with it, as to be
put to dispute, and argue in its own defence, and yet not be
wholly able to eject or cast out the poison, and leaven that
which hath been injegted ; but is surprised, if it be never so
little off its watch, into an entanglement not easy to be
avoided ; so that the soul may cry, and pray, and cry again,
and yet not be delivered ; as Paul sought the Lord thrice
446 OF TEMPTATION.
for the departure of his temptation, and prevailed not. The
entanglement continues. And this usually falls out in one
of these two seasons.
[1.] When Satan by the permission of God, for ends best
known to himself, hath got some peculiar advantage against
the soul. As in the case of Peter : ' he soug-ht to winnow
him,' and prevailed.
[2.] When a man's lusts and corruptions meet with pe-
culiarly provoking- objects and occasions, through the con-
dition of life that a man is in, with the circumstances of it ;
as it was with David : of both which afterward.
In this state of things, a man is entered into temptation ;
and this is called the 'hour of temptation;' Rev. iii. 10. The
season wherein it grows to a head ; the discovery whereof
will give farther light into the present inquiry, about what
it is to enter into temptation ; for when the hour of tempta-
tion is come upon us, we are entered into it. Every great
and pressing temptation hath its hour, a season wherein it
grows to a head ; wherein it is most vigorous, active, ope-
rative, and prevalent. It may be long in rising, it may be
long urging more or less ; but it hath a season, wherein from
the conjunction of other occurrences, such as those men-
tioned, outward or inward, it hath a dangerous hour, and
then for the most part, men enter into it. Hence that very
temptation, which at one time hath little or no power on a
man, he can despise it, scorn the motions of it, easily resist
it ; at another, bears him away quite before it : it hath from
other circumstances and occurrences, got new strength and
efficacy; or the man is enervated and weakened, the hour is
come, he is entered into it, and it prevails. David probably
had temptations before in his younger days to adultery or
murder, as he had in the case of Nabal ; but the hour of
temptation was not come, it had not got its advantages
about it, and so he escaped, until afterward. Let men look
for it, that are exposed unto temptations, as who is not?
they will have a season wherein their solicitations will be
more urgent, their reasonings more plausible, pretences more
glorious, hopes of recovery more appearing, opportunities
more broad and open, the doors of evil made more beautiful
than ever they have been : blessed is he who is prepared for
OF TEMPTATION, 447
such a season, without which there is no escaping. This, as
1 said, is the first thing required to entering into temptation ;
if we stay here, we are safe.
Before I descend to other particulars, having now en-
tered hereon, I shall shew in general,
1st. How, or by what means, commonly any tempta-
tion attains its hour.
2dly. How we may know when any temptation is come
to its high noon, and is in its hour.
1st. It doth the first by several ways.
(1st.) By long solicitations, causing the mind frequently
to converse with the evil solicited unto, it begets extenuating
thoughts of it. If it makes this process, it is coming to-
wards its hour. It may be when first it began to press upon
the soul, the soul was amazed with the ugly appearance of
what it aimed at, and cried, am I a dog? If this indagation
be not daily heightened, but the soul by conversing with
the evil, begins to grow as it were familiar with it, not to be
startled as formerly, but rather inclines to cry. Is it not a
little one ; then the temptation is coming towards its high
noon, lust hath then enticed and entangled, and is ready to
conceive, James ii. 14. of which more at large afterward, in
our inquiry, how we may know, whether we are entered into
temptation, or no : our present inquest is after the hour and
power of temptation itself.
(2dly.) When it hath prevailed on others, and the soul
is not filled with dislike and abhorrency of them and their
ways, nor with pity and prayer for their deliverance. This
proves an advantage unto it, and raises it towards its height.
When that temptation sets upon any one, which at the same
time hath possessed and prevailed with many, it hath so
great, and so many advantages thereby, that it is surely
growing towards its hour. Its prevailing with others, is a
means to give it its hour against us. The falling off of Hy-
raeneus and Philetus, is said to * overthrow the faith of some ;'
2 Tim. ii.. 17, 18,
(3dly.) By complicating itself with many considerations,
that perhaps are not absolutely evil. So did the temptation
of the Galatians to fall from the purity of the gospel, free-
dom from persecution, union and consent with the Jews :
things in themselves good, were pleaded in it, and gave life
448 OF TEMPTATIOX.
to the temptation itself. But I shall not now insist on the
several advantages, that any temptation hath to heighten
and greaten itself, to make itself prevalent and effectual,
with the contribution that it receives to this purpose, from
various circumstances, opportunities, specious pleas and
pretences, necessities for the doing that which cannot be
done without answering the temptation, and the like ; be-
cause I must speak unto some of them afterward.
2dly. For the second, it may be known,
(1st.) By its restless urgency, and arguing. When a
temptation is in its hour, it is restless : it is the time of bat-
tle, and it gives the soul no rest. Satan sees his advantage,
considers his conjunction of forces, and knows that he must
now prevail, or be hopeless for ever. Here are opportuni-
ties,^ here are advantages, here are specious pleas and pre-
tences ; some ground is already got by former arguings,
here are extenuations of the evil, hopes of pardon by after
endeavours, all in a readiness; if he can do nothing now,
he must sit down lost in his undertakings. So when he had
got all things in a readiness against Christ, he made it the
hour of darkness. When a temptation discovers 'mille no-
cendi artes,' presses within doors by imaginations and rea-
sonincrs; without, by solicitations, advantages, and opportu-
nities; let the soul know, that the hour of it is come, and
the glory of God, with its own welfare, depends on its be-
haviour in this trial : as we shall see in the particular cases
following.
(2dly.) When it makes a conjunction of affrightments
and allurements, these two comprise the whole forces of
temptation. When both are brought together, temptation
is in its hour. They were both in David's case, as to the
murder of Uriah ; there was the fear of his revenge on his
wife, and possibly on himself; and fear of the publication of
his sin, at least; and there was the allurement of his present
enjoyment of her, whom he lusted after. Men sometimes
are carried into sin by love to it, and are continued in it by
fear of what will ensue upon it. But in any case, where
these two meet, something allures us, something affrights
us, and the reasonings that run between them, are ready to
entangle us, then is the hour of temptation.
This then it is to enter into temptation, this is the
OF TEMPTATION. 449
hour of it; of which more in the process of our dis-
course.
(3dly.) There is the means of prevention prescribed by
our Saviour, they are two :
[1st.] Watch.
[2dly.]Pray.
[1st.] The first is a general expression, by no means to
be limited to its native signification, of waking from sleep :
to watch is as much as to be on our guard, to take heed, to
consider all ways and means, whereby an enemy may ap-
proach to us. So the apostle, 1 Cor. xvi. 13. This it is to
watch in this business, to stand fast in the faith, as good
soldiers, to quit ourselves like men. It is as much as irpoa-
ix^iv, to 'take heed,' or look to ourselves, as the same thing-
is by our Saviour often expressed : so Rev. iii. 2. A uni-
versal carefulness, and diligence, exercising itself in, and by
all ways and means, prescribed by God, over our hearts and
ways, the baits and methods of Satan, the occasions and
advantages of sin in the world, that we be not entangled, is
that which in this word is pressed on us.
[2dly.] For the second direction of prayer, I need not
speak to it. The duty and its concernments are known to
all: 1 shall only add, that these two comprise the whole
endeavour of faith, for the soul's preservation from tempta-
tion.
CHAP. III.
The doch-ine. Grounds of it ; our Saviour s direction in this case. His
promise of preservation. Issues of man entering into temptation. I. Of
ungrounded professors. 2. Of the choicest saints, j\dam, Abraham. Da-
vid. Self -consideration as to our own weuhness. The power of a man's heart
to withstand temptation considered. The considerations that it nseth for
that purpose. The power of temptation; it darkens the mind. The several
ways whereby it doth so. 1 . By Jixiny the imayinntions. 2. By en-
tanyliny the affections. 3. Temptations yivef ml to lust. 4:. The end of
temptation considered, with the issue of former temptations ; some objec-
tions answered.
Having thus opened the words in the foregoing chapter so
far as is necessary to discover the foundation of the truth to
VOL. VII. 2 o
450 OF TEMPTATION.
be insisted on, and improved, I shall lay it down in the en-
suing observation.
Observ. It is the great duty of all believers to use all dili-
gence in the ways of Christ's appointment, that they fall not
into temptation.
I know God is able to deliver tiie godly out of tempta-
tion. I know he is 'faithful, not to suffer us to be tempted
above what we are able, but will make a way for our escape /
3'et I dare say I shall convince all those who will attend unto
what is delivered and written, that it is our great duty and
concernment to use all diligence, watchfulness, and care, that
we enter not into temptation ; and I shall evince it by the
ensuing considerations.
1. In that compendious instruction given us by our Sa-
viour, concerning what we ought to pray for, this of not 'en-
tering into temptation,' is expressly one head. Our Saviour
knew of what concernment it was to us, not to enter into
temptation, when he gave us this, as one special subject of
our daily dealing with God ; Matt, vi, 13. And the order of
the words shews us of what importance it is ; * Lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil.' If we are led into
temptation, evil will befall us, more or less. How God may
be said to tempt us, or 'to lead us into temptation' I shewed
before. In this direction, it is not so much the not giving
us up to it, as the powerful keeping us from it, that is in-
tended. The last words are as it were exegetical, or expo-
sitory of the former; * Lead us not into temptation, but de-
liver us from the evil:' so deal with us, that we may be
powerfully delivered from that evil, which attends our en-
tering into temptation. Our blessed Saviour knows full well
our state and condition ; he knows the power of temptations,
having had experience of it; Heb. ii. 12. he knows our vain
confidence, and the reserves we have concerning our ability
to deal with temptations, as he found it in Peter ; but he
knows our weakness and folly, and how soon we are cast to
the ground ; and therefore doth he lay in this provision for
instruction, at the entrance of his ministry, to make us heed-
ful, if possible, in that which is of so great concernment to
us. If then we will repose any confidence in the wisdom,
love, and care of Jesus Christ towards us, we must grant the
truth pleaded for.
OF TEMPTATION. 451
2. Christ promiseth this freedom and deliverance as a
great reward of most acceptable obedience ; Rev. iii. 10.
This is the great promise made to the church of Philadel-
phia, wherein Christ found nothing that he would blame.
' Thou shalt be kept from the hour of temptation ;' not,
thou shalt be preserved in it; but he goes higher, Hhou
shalt be kept from it.' There is, saith our Saviour, an hour
of temptation coming ; a season that will make havoc in
the world; multitudes shall then fall from the faith, deny
and blaspheme me. Oh how few will be able to stand and
hold out 1 Some will be utterly destroyed and perish for
ever; some will get wounds to their souls that shall never
be well healed whilst they live in this world, and have their
bones broken, so as to go halting all their days. But, saith
he, ' because thou hast kept the word of my patience,' 1 will
be tender towards thee, and keep the from this hour of
temptation. Certainly that which Christ thus promises to
his beloved church, as a reward of her service, love, and
obedience, is no light thing ; whatever Christ promiseth to
his spouse, is a fruit of unspeakable love ; that is so in an
especial manner, which is promised as a reward of special
obedience.
3. Let us to this purpose consider the general issues of
men's entering into temptation, and that of bad and good
men, of ungrounded professors, and of the choicest saints.
(1.) For the first I shall offer but one or two texts of
Scripture ; Luke viii. 13. * They on the rock, are they which
when they hear, receive the word with joy, and have no
root, but for awhile believe.' Well ! how long do they be-
lieve ? They are affected with the preaching of the word, and
believe thereon ; make profession, bring forth some fruits ;
but until when do they abide ? Says he, ' In the time of
temptation they fall away ;' when once they enter into temp-
tation they are gone for ever ; temptation withers all their
profession, and slays their souls. We see this accomplished
every day ; men who have attended on the preaching of the
gospel, been affected and delighted with it, that have made
profession of it, and have been looked on, it may be, as be-
lievers, and thus have continued for some years ; no sooner
doth a temptation befall them, that hath vigour and perma-
2 G 2
452 OF TEMPTATIOX. -
nency in it, but they are turned out of the way, and are gone
for ever ; they fall to hate the word they have delis^hted in,
despise the professors of it, and are hardened by sin. So
Matt. vii. 26. ' He that heareth these words of mine, and
doeth them not, is like a man that built his house upon the
sand;' but what doth this house of profession do? It shel-
ters him, keeps him warm, and stands for awhile ; but saith
he, ver. 27. when the rain descends, when temptation comes,
it falls utterly, and its fall is great. Judas follows our Sa-
viour three years, and all goes well with him ; he no sooner
enters into temptation, Satan hath got him, and winnowed
him, but he is gone. Demas will preach the gospel, until
the love of the world befall him, and he is utterly turned
aside. It were endless to give instances of this ; entrance
into temptation, is with this sort of men an entrance into
apostacy, more or less, in part or in whole, it faileth not.
(2.) For the saints of God themselves, let us see by some
instances, what issue they have had of their entering into
temptation. I shall name a few.
Adam, was the son of God ; Luke iii. created in the
image of God ; full of that integrity, righteousness, and ho-
liness, which might be and was an eminent resemblance of
the holiness of God. He had a far greater inherent stock
of ability than we ; and had nothing in him to entice or se-
duce him, yet this Adam no sooner enters into temptation,
but he is gone, lost, and ruined, he and all his posterity
with him. What can we expect in the like condition, that
have not only in our temptations, as he had, a cunning
devil to deal withal, but a cursed world, and a corrupt heart
also ?
Abraham was the father of the faithful ; Gen. xii. 12, 13.
whose faith is proposed as a pattern to all them that shall be-
lieve ; Gen. xx. 2. yet he entering twice into the same temp-
tation, namely, that of fear about his wife, was twice over-
powered by it, to the dishonour of God, and no doubt the
disquietment of his own soul.
David is called a man after God's own heart by God
himself; yet what a dreadful thing is the story of his en-
tering into temptation ; he is no sooner entangled, but he
is plunged into adultery ; thence seeking deliverance by his
OF TEMPTATfON. 453
own invention, like a poor creature in a toil, he is entangled
more and more, until he lies as one dead, under the power
of sin and folly.
I might mention Noah, Lot, Hezekiah, Peter, and the rest,
whose temptations and falls therein, are on record for our
instruction. Certainly he that hath any heart in these things,
cannot but say as the inhabitants of Samaria upon the letter
of Jehu ; ' Behold two kings stood not before him, how shall
we stand?' Oh Lord! if such mighty pillars have been cast
to the ground, such cedars blown down, how shall I stand
before temptations ? Oh keep me that I enter not in, * ves-
tigia terrent ;' behold the footsteps of them that have gone
in; whom do you see retiring without a wound? a blemish at
least ? On this account would the apostle have us to exer-
cise tenderness towards them that are fallen into sin ; Gal.
vi. 1. 'Considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted ;' he
doth not say, lest thou also sin, or fall, or be overtaken with a
fault; but lest thou also be tempted ; thou seestthe power of
temptation in others, and knowest not how soon thou mayest
be tempted, nor what will be the state and condition of thy
soul thereupon. Assuredly he that hath seen so many
better, stronger men than himself fail, and cast down in the
trial, will think it incumbent on him to remember the bat-
tle, and if it be possible, to come there no more. Is it not
a madness for a man that can scarce crawl up and dowai, he
is so weak (which is the case of most of us) if he avoid not
what he hath seen giants foiled in the undertaking of? Thou
art yet whole and sound, take heed of temptation, lest it be
with thee as it was with Abraham, David, Lot, Peter, Heze-
kiah, the Galatians, who fell in the time of trial.
In nothing doth the folly of the hearts of men shew itself
more openly, in the days wherein we live, than in this cursed
boldness, after so many warnings from God, and so many
sad experiences every day under their eyes, of running into
and putting themselves upon temptations. Any society,
any company, any conditions of outward advantages, with-
out once weighing what their strength, or what the concern-
ment of their poor souls is, they are ready for. Though they
go over the dead and the slain, that in those ways and paths
but even now fell down before them, yet they will go on
without reo;ard or tremblins;. At this door are o-one out
454 OF TEMPTATION.
hundreds, thousands of professors wilhin a few years.
But,
4. Let us consider ourselves 5 what our weakness is, and
what temptation is; its power and efficacy, with what it
leads unto.
(1.) For ourselves, we are weakness itself. We have no
strength, no power to withstand. Confidence of any strength
in us, is one great part of our weakness. It was so in Peter.
He that says he can do any thing, can do nothing as he
should. And, which is worse, it is the worst kind of weak-
ness that is in us ; a weakness from treachery ; a weakness
arising from that party which every temptation hath in us.
If a castle or fort be never so strong and well fortified, yet
if there be a treacherous party within, that is ready to be-
tray it on every opportunity, there is no preserving it from
the enemy. There are traitors in our hearts, ready to take
part, to close, and side with every temptation, and to give
up all to them ; yea, to solicit and bribe temptations to do
the work; as traitors incite an enemy. Do not flatter your-
selves that you shall hold out ; there are secret lusts that
lie lurking in your hearts, which perhaps now stir not,
which as soon as any temptation befalls you, will rise, tu-
multuate, cry, disquiet, seduce, and never give over, until
they are either killed, or satisfied. He that promises him-
self, that the frame of his heart will be the same under a
temptation, as it is before, will be wofuUy mistaken. 'Am
I a dog, that I should do this thing ?' says Hazael ; yea,
thou wilt be such a dog, if ever thou be king of Syria ;
temptation from thy interest will unman thee. He that now
abhors the thoughts of such and such a thing, if he once
enters into temptation, will find his heart inflamed towards
it, and all contrary reasonings overborne and silenced. He
will deride his former fears, cast out his scruples, and con-
temn the consideration that he lived upon. Little did
Peter think he should deny and forswear his master, so soon
as ever he was questioned whether he knew him or no ; it
was no better when the hour of temptation came ; all reso-
lutions were forgotten, all love to Christ buried, the present
temptation closing with his carnal fear carried all before it.
To handle this a little more distinctly ; I shall consider
the means of safety from the power of temptation, if we enter
OF TEMPTATION. 455
therein, that may be expected from ourselves ; and that in
general as to the spring and rise of them; and in particular,
as to the ways of exerting that strength we have, or seem
to have.
[1.] In general, all we can look for is from our hearts;
what a man's heart is, that is he, but now what is the heart
of a man in such a season ?
1st. Suppose a man is not a believer, but only a profes-
sor of the gospel, what can the heart of such a one do ?
Prov. X. 20. 'The heart of the wicked is little vv'orth ; and
surely that which is little worth in any thing, is not much
worth in this. A wicked man may in outward things be of
great use; but come to his heart, that is false and a thing
of nought. Now withstanding of temptation is heart-work ;
and when it comes like a flood, can such a rotten trifle as a
wicked man's heart, stand before it ? But of these before ;
entering into temptation and apostacy is the same with
them.
2dly. Let it be whose heart it will, Prov. xxviii.26. ' He
that trusteth in his own heart is a fool ;' he that doth so,
be he what he will, in that he is foolish. Peter did so in his
temptation ; he trusted in his own heart; 'Though all men
forsake thee, I will not;' it was his folly; but why was it
his folly? He shall not be delivered ; it will not preserve
him in snares ; it will not deliver him in temptations. The
heart of a man will promise him very fair before a tempta-
tion comes ; ' Am I a dog,' says Hazael, ' that I should do
this thing ? Though all men should deny thee, I will not :
shall I do this evil V It cannot be. All the arguments that
are suited to give check to the heart in such a condition,
are mustered up : did not Peter, think you, do so ? What,
deny my master, the Son of God ; my Redeemer ; who loves
me? Can such ingratitude, unbelief, rebellion, befall me ? I
will not do it. Shall then a man rest in it, that his heart will
be steadfast ? Let the wise man answer, * He that trusteth
in his own heart is a fool.' 'The heart is deceitful;' Jer.
xvii. 9. We would not willingly trust any thing wherein
there is any deceit or guile ; here is that which is 'deceitful
above all things.' It hath a thousand shifts and treacheries,
that it will deal withal, when it comes to the trial, every
temptation will steal it away ; JIos. iv. 11. Generally men's
456 OF TEMPTATIOX.
hearts deceive them no oftener than they do trust in them,
and then they never fail so to do.
[2.] Consider the particular ways and means, that such a
heart hath, or can use to safeguard itself in the hour of
temjDtation, and their insufficiency to that purpose will
quickly appear. ,1 shall instance in some few only.
1st. Love of honour in the world. Reputation and
esteem in the church, obtained by former profession, and
walking, is one of the heart's own weapons to defend itself
in the hour of temptation. Shall such a one as I fly ? I
who have had such a reputation in the church of God, shall
I now lose it by giving way to this lust, to this temptation ?
by closing with this, or that public evil? This consideration
hath such an influence on the spirits of some, that they think
it will be a shield and buckler against any assaults that may
befall them. They will die a thousand times before they will
forfeit that repute, they have in the church of God. But
alas, this is but a with, or a new cord, to bind a giant temp-
tation withal. What think you of the third part of the stars
of heaven? Rev. xii. 4. Had they not shone in the firmament
of the church? Were they not sensible, more than enough,
of their own honour, height, usefulness, and reputation?
But when the dragon comes with his temptations, he casts
them down to the earth. Yea, great temptations will make
men, who have not a better defence, insensibly fortify them-
selves against that dishonour, and disreputation that their
ways are attended withal : ' populus sibilet, nee mihi
plaudo ;' do we not know instances yet living, of some who
have ventured on compliances with wicked men, after the
glory of a long and useful profession, and within a while find-
ing themselves cast down thereby from their reputation with
the saints, have hardened themselves against it, and ended
in apostacy ? as John xv. 6. This kept not Judas, it kept
not Hymeneus nor Philetus, it kept not the stars of heaven,
nor will it keep thee,
2dly, There is on the other side, the consideration of
shame, reproach, loss, and the like. This also men may put
their trust in, as a defence against temptations ; and do not
fear but to be safeguarded and preserved by it. They would
not for the world bring that shame and reproach upon them-
selves, that such and such miscarriages are attended withal.
OF TEMPTATION. 457
Now, besides that this consideration extends itself only to
open sins, such as the world takes notice of, and abhors,
and so is of no use at all in such cases, as wherein pretences
and colours may be invented and used, nor in public temp-
tations to loose and careless walking, like those of our days,
nor in cases that may be disputable in themselves, though
expressly sinful to the consciences of persons under temp-
tations, nor in heart sins, in all which, and most other cases
of temptation, there are innumerable reliefs ready to be ten-
dered unto the heart against this consideration ; besides all
this, 1 say, we see by experience, how easily this cord is
broken, when once the heart begins to be entangled : each
corner of the land is full of examples to this purpose.
3dly. They have yet that which outweighs these lesser
considerations ; namely, that they will not wound their own
consciences, and disturb their peace, and bring themselves
in danger of hell fire. This surely, if any thing, will preserve
men in the hour of temptation. They will not lavish away
their peace, uor venture their souls, by running on God, and
the thick bosses of his buckler. What can be of more effi-
cacy and prevalency ? 1 confess this is of great importance ;
and Oh that it were more pondered than it is : that we laid
more weight upon the preservation of our peace with God,
than we do ; yet I say that even this consideration in him
who is otherwhere off from his watch, and doth not make
it his work to follow the other rules insisted on ; it will not
preserve him : for
(1st.) The peace of such a one, may be false peace or se-
curity ; made up of presumption and false hopes, yea,
though he be a believer, it may be so : such was David's
peace after his sin, before Nathan came to him : such was
Laodicea's peace, when ready to perish; and Sardis, her
peace, when dying. What should secure a soul that it is
otherwise ; seeing it is supposed, that it doth not univer-
sally labour to keep the word of Christ's patience, and to
be watchful in all things ? Think you that the peace of
many in these days, \\i\\ be found to be true peace at last ?
Nothing less ; they go alive down to hell, and death will
have dominion over them in the morning. Now if a man's
peace be such, do you think that can preserve him, which
cannot preserve itself? It will give way at the first vigorous
ass**'alt of a temptation in its height and hour. Like a
458 OF TEMPTATIOX.
broken reed, it will run into the hand of him that leaneth on
it. But,
2dly. Suppose the peace cared for, and proposed to
safeguard the soul, be true and good, yet when all is laid up
in this one bottom, when the hour of temptation comes, so
many reliefs will be tendered against this consideration, as
will make it useless. This evil is small, it is questionable,
it falls not openly and downright upon conscience ; I do
but fear consequences, it may be I may keep my peace not-
withstanding ; others of the people of God have fallen, and
yet kept or recovered their peace ; if it be lost for a season,
it may be obtained again ; I will not solicit its station any
more; or though peace be lost, safety may remain ; and a
thousand such pleas there are, which are all planted as bat-
teries against this fort, so that it cannot long hold out.
3dly. The fixing on this particular only ; is to make
good one passage or entrance, whilst the enemy assaults us
round about. It is true a little armour would serve to de-
fend a man, if he might choose where his enemy should strike
him ; but we are commanded to take the 'whole armour of
God,' if we intend to resist and stand; Eph. vi. This we
speak of is but one piece, and when our eye is only to that,
temptation may enter and prevail twenty other ways. For
instance, a man may be tempted to worldliness, unjust gain,
revenge, vain glory, or the like ; if he fortify himself alone
with this consideration, he v>i!l not do this thing, and wound
his conscience and lose his peace ; fixing his eye on this
particular, and counting himself safe, whilst he is not over-
come on that hand, it may be neglect of private communion
with God, sensuality, and the like, do creep in, and he is
not one jot in a better condition, than if he had fallen under
the power of that part of the temptation, which was most
visibly pressing on him.
4thly. Experience gives to see that this doth and will
fail also. There is no saint of God, but puts a valuation on
the peace he hath : yet how many of them fail in the day
of temptation? But yet they have another consideration
also, and that is, the vileness of sinning against God ?
How shall they do this thing and sin against God, the God
of their mercies, of their salvation ? How shall they wound
Jesus Christ, who died for them ? This surely cannot but
preserve them. I answer.
OF TEMPTATION. 459
1. We see every day this consideration failing also.
There is no child of God that is overcome of temptation
but overcomes this consideration. It is not then a sure and
infallible defensative.
2. This consideration is twofold ; either it expresses the
thoughts of the soul with particular reference to the temp-
tation contended withal ; and then it will not preserve
it : or it expresses the universal habitual frame of heart,
that is in us, upon all accounts, and then it falleth in with
what I shall tender as the universal medicine and remedy
in this case, in the process of this discourse ; whereof after-
ward.
(2.) Consider the power of temptation; partly from what
was shewed before, from the effects and fruits of it in the
saints of old ; partly from such other effects in general as
we find ascribed to it : as
[1.] It will darken the mind, that a man shall not be able
to make a right judgment of things, so as he did before he
entered into it. As in the men of the world, the god of
this world blinds their minds, that they should not see
the glory of Christ in the gospel ; 2 Cor. iv. 4. and whoredom,
wine, and new wine take away their hearts; Hos. iv. 11.
So it is in the nature of every temptation more or less, to
take away the heart, or to darken the understanding of the
person tempted.
And this it doth divers ways ;
1st. By fixing the imagination, and the thoughts, upon
the object whereto it tends, so that the mind shall be di-
verted from the consideration of the things that would
relieve and succour it in the state wherein it is. A man is
tempted to apprehend that he is forsaken of God, that he is
an object of his hatred, that he hath no interest in Christ;
by the craft of Satan, the mind shall be so fixed to the con-
sideration of this state and condition, with the distress of it,
that he shall not be able to manage any of the reliefs sug-
gested, and tendered to him against it ; but follov/ing the
fulness of his own thoughts, shall walk on in darkness, and
have no light. I say a temptation will so possess and fill
the mind with thoughtfulness of itself, and the matter of it,
that it will take off from that clear consideration of things
which otherwise it might, and would have. And those things
460 OF TEMPTATIOX.
whereof the mind was wont to have a vigorous sense to keep
it from sin, will by this means come to have no force or effi-
cacy with it ; nay, it will commonly bring men to that state
and condition, that when others to whom their estate is
known, are speaking to them the things that concern their
deliverance and peace, their minds will be so possessed with
the matter of their temptation, as not at all to understand,
scarce to hear one word that is spoken to them.
2dly. By woful entangling of the affections, which when
they are engaged, what influence they have in blinding the
mind, and darkening the understanding, is known : if any
know it not, let him but open his eyes, in these days, and he
will quickly learn it. By what ways and means it is, that
engaged affections will becloud the mind and darken it, I
shall not now declare. Only I say, give me a man engaged
in hope, love, fear, in reference to any particulars wherein
he ought not, and I shall quickly shew you, wherein he is
darkened and blinded. This then you will fail in, if you
enter into temptation : the present judgment you have of
things, will not be utterly altered, but darkened, and rendered
infirm, to influence the will and master the affections; these
being set at liberty by temptation will run on in madness.
Forthwith detestation of sin, abhorring of it, terrors of the
Lord, sense of love, presence of Christ crucified, all depart
and leave the heart a prey to its enemy.
3dly. Temptation will give oil and fuel to our lusts, in-
cite, provoke, and make them tumultuate and rage beyond
measure ; tendering a lust, a corruption, a suitable object,
advantage, occasion, it heightens and exasperates it, makes
it for a season wholly predominant ; so dealt it with carnal
fear in Peter, with pride in Hezekiah, with covetousness in
Achan, with uncleanness in David, with worldliness in Demas,
with ambition in Diotrephes ; it will lay the reins on the
neck of a lust, and put spurs to the sides of it, that it may
rush forward, like a horse into the battle. A man knows
not the pride, fury, madness of a corruption, until it meet
with a suitable temptation. And what now will a poor soul
think to do? His mind is darkened, his affections entangled,
his lusts inflamed and provoked, his relief is defeated, and
what will be the issue of such a condition ?
(3.) Consider that temptations are either public or pri-
OF TExMPTATIOX. 461
vate ; and let us a little view the efficacy and power of them
apart.
[1.] There are public temptations; such as that men-
tioned, Rev. iii. 10. that was to come upon the world to try
them that dwell upon the earth ; or a combination of perse-
cution and seduction for the trial of a careless generation of
professors : now concerning such a temptation, consider
that,
1st. It hath an efficacy in respect of God, who sends it
to revenge the neglect and contempt of the gospel on the
one hand ; and treachery of false professors on the other.
Hence it will certainly accomplish what it receives commis-
sion from him to do. When Satan offered his service to go
forth and seduce Ahab, that he might fall ; God says to him,
'Thou shalt persuade him and prevail also: go forth and do so;'
1 Kings xxii. 22. he is permitted as to his wickedness, and
commissionated, as to the event and punishment intended.
When the Christian world was to be given up to folly and
false worship, for their neglect of the truth, and their naked,
barren, fruitless, Christ-dishonouring profession ; it is said
of the temptation that fell upon them, that God ' sent them
strong delusions, that they should believe a lie ;' 2 Thess.
ii. 11. That, that comes so from God in a judiciary manner,
hath a power with it, and shall prevail; that selfish, spiritually
slothful, careless, and worldly frame of spirit, which in these
days hath infected almost the body of professors, if it have
a commission from God, to kill hypocrites, to wound negli-
gent saints, to break their bones, and make them scandalous,
that they may be ashamed, shall it not have a power and ef-
ficacy so to do ? What work hath the spirit of error made
amongst us ? Is it not from hence, that as some men de-
lighted not to retain God in their hearts, so he hath ' given
them up to a reprobate mind ;' Rom. i. 28. A man would
think it strange, yea, it is matter of amazement, to see per-
sons of a sober spirit, pretending to great things in the ways
of God, overcome, captivated, ensnared, destroyed, by weak
means, sottish opinions, foolish imaginations, such as a man
would think it impossible that they should ever lay hold on
sensible or rational men, much less on professors of the gos-
pel. But that which God will have to be strong, let us not
think weak ; no strensth but the strength of God, can stand
4G2 OF TEMPTATION.
in the way of the weakest things of the world, tliat are com-
missionated from God, for any end or purpose whatever.
2dly. There is in such temptations, the secret insinua-
tion of examples in those that are accounted godly, and are
professors ; Matt. xxiv. 12. ' Because iniquity shall abound,
the love of many shall wax cold,' &;c. the abounding of
iniquity in some will insensibly cast v/ater on the zeal and
love of others, that by little and little it shall wax cold.
Some begin to grow negligent, careless, worldly, wanton ;
they break the ice towards the pleasing of the flesh ; at
first others blame, judge them, perhaps reprove them, in a
short space their love also waxes cold, and the brunt being
over they also conform to them, and are cast into the same
mould with them. 'A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.'
Paul repeats this saying twice ; 1 Cor. v. 6. and Gal. v. 9.
He would have us take notice of it, and it is of the danger of
the infection of the whole body, from the ill examples of
some, Avhereof he speaks. We know how insensibly leaven
proceedeth to give a savour to the whole : so it is termed a
root of bitterness that springeth up, and defileth many; Heb.
xii. 15. If one little piece of leaven ; if one bitter root may
endanger the whole, how much more when there are many
roots of that nature, and much leaven is scattered abroad ?
It is easy following a multitude to do evil; and saying a con-
spiracy to them to whom the people say a conspiracy.
Would anyone have thought it possible, that such and such
professors in our days, should have fallen into ways of self,
of flesh, of the world ? to play at cards, dice, revel, dance ? ■
to neglect family, closet duties ? to be proud, haughty, ambi-
tious, worldly, covetous, o])pressive ? or that they should
be turned away after foolish, vain, ridiculous opinions, de-
serting the gospel of Christ? In which two, lies the great
temptation that is come on us the inhabitants of this world
to try us : but doth not every man see, that this is come to
pass ? and may we not see how it is come to pass ? Some
loose empty professors, who had never more than a form of
godliness, when they had served their turn of that, began
the way to them; then others began a little to comply, and
to please the flesh in so doing ; this by little and little hath
reached even the top boughs and branches of our profession ;
until almost nil flesh hath corrupted its ways ; and he that
OF TEMPTATION. 463
departeth from these iniquities, makes his name a prey, if not
his person.
3dly. Public temptations are usually accompanied with
strong reasons and pretences, that are too hard for men, or
at least insensibly prevail upon them, to an undervabiation
of the evil vvhereunto the temptation leads, to give strength
to that complicated temptation which in these days hath
even cast down the people of God from their excellency, hath
cut their locks, and made them become like other men ; how
full is the world of specious pretences and pleadings ! As there
is the liberty and freedom of Christians, delivered from a
bondage frame ; this is a door that in my own observation,
I have seen sundry going out at, into sensuality and apos-
tacy : beginning at a light conversation, proceeding to a neg-
lect of the sabbath, public and private duties, ending in dis-
soluteness and profaneness ; and then there is leaving of
public things to providence, being contented with what is ;
things good in themselves, but disputed into wretched carnal
compliances, and the utter ruin of all zeal for God, the in-
terest of Christ, or his people in the world. These and the
like considerations, joined with the ease and plenty, the
greatness and promotion of professors, have so brought
things about, that whereas we have by providence shifted
places with the men of the world, we have by sin shifted
spirits with them also. We are like a plantation of men
carried into a foreign country : in a short space they dege-
nerate from the manners of the people from whence they
came, and fall into that of the country whereunto they are
brought ; as if there were something in the soil and the air
that transformed them. Give me leave a little to follow my
similitude : he that should see the prevailing party of these
nations, many of those in rule, power, favour, with all their
adherents, and remember that they were a colony of Puri-
tans, whose habitation was in a low place, as the prophet
speaks of the city of God, translated by a high hand to the
mountains they now possess ; cannot but wonder, how soon
they have forgot the customs, manners, ways, of their own
old people, and are cast into the mould of them that went be-
fore them, in the places whereunto they are translated. I
speak of us all; especially of us, who are amongst the lowest
of the people ; where perhaps this iniquity doth most abound.,
464 OF TEMPTATION".
What were those before us, that we are not ? What did they,
we do not? Prosperity hath sUiiu the foolish, and wounded
the wise.
[2.] Suppose the temptation is private; this hath been
spoken to before ; I shall add two things :
1st. Its union and incorporation with lust, whereby it
gets within the soul, and lies at the bottom of its actings.
John tells us, 1 Epist. ii. 16. that the things that are in the
world, ' are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the
pride of life.' Now it is evident that all these things are
principally in the subject, not in the object; in the heart,
not in the world. But they are said to be in the world, be-
cause the world gets into them ; mixes itself with them, unites,
incorporates. As faith and the promises are said to be mixed,
Heb. iv. 2. so are lust and temptation mixed; they twine to-
gether, receive mutual improvement from one anotlier; grow
each of them higher and higher by the mutual strength they
administer to one another. Now by this means temptation
gets so deep in the heart, that no contrary reasonings can
reach unto it ; nothing but what can kill the lust, can con-
quer the temptation. Like leprosy that hath mingled itself
with the wall; the wall itself must be pulled down, or the
leprosy will not be cured. Like a gangrene that mixes
poison with the blood and spirits, and cannot be separated
from the place where it is, but both must be cut off toge-
ther. For instance, in David's temptation to uncleanness :
ten thousand considerations might have been taken in, to
stop the mouth of the temptation ; but it had united itself
with his lust, and nothing but the killing of that, could de-
stroy it, or get him the conquest. This deceives many a
one : they have some pressing temptation, that having got
some advantages is urgent upon them; they pray against it,
oppose it with all powerful considerations : such, as whereof
every one seems sufficient to conquer and destroy it; at
len-t to overpower it, that it should never be troublesome
any more ; but no good is done, no ground is got or ob-
tau cd, yea, it grows upon them more and more : what is the
reason of it? It hath incorporated and united itself with the
lust, and is safe from all the opposition they make. If they
would make work indeed, they are to set upon the whole of
the lust itself; their ambition, pride, worldliness, sensuality,
OF TEMPTATION. 465
or whatever it be, that the temptation is united with. All
other dealings with it are like tamperings with a prevailing
gangrene ; the part or whole may be preserved a little while,
in great torment; excision or death must come at last. The
soul may cruciate itself for a season, with such a procedure;
but it must come to this, its lust must die, or the soul
must die.
2dly. In what part soever of the soul the lust be seated,
wherewith the temptation is united, it draws after it the
whole soul, by one means or other, and so prevents or anti-
cipates any opposition. Suppose it be a lust of the mind;
as there are lusts of the mind, and uncleanness of the spirit;
such as ambition, vain-glory, and the like ; what a world of
ways hath the understanding to bridle the affections, that
they should not so tenaciously cleave to God, seeing in what
it aimeth at, there is so much to give them contentment
and satisfaction. It will not only prevent all the reasonings
of the mind, which it doth necessarily, being like a bloody
infirmity in the eyes, presenting all things to the common
sense and perception in that hue and colour; but it will
draw the whole soul on other accounts, and collateral consi-
derations, into the same frame. It promises the whole share
in the spoil aimed at ; as Judas's money, that he first desired
from covetousness, was to be shared among all his lusts. Or
be it in the more sensual part, and first possesseth the affec-
tions; what prejudices they will bring upon the understand-
ing, how they will bribe it to an acquiescence ; what argu-
ments, what hopes they will supply it withal cannot easily
be expressed ; as was before shewed. In brief, there is no
particular temptation, but, when it is in its hour, it hath such
a contribution of assistance from things good, evil, indiffer-
ent, is fed by so many considerations, that seem to be most
alien and foreign to it, in some cases hath such specious
pleas and pretences, that its strength will easily be acknow-
ledged.
(5.) Consider the end of any temptation ; this is Satan's
end, and sin's end ; that is, the dishonour of God, and the
ruin of our souls.
(6.) Consider what hath been the issue of any former
temptations that thou hast had ; have they not defiled thy
VOL. VII. 2 H
466 OF TEMPTATION'.
conscience, disquieted thy peace, weakened thee in thy obe-
dience, clouded the face of God ? thougli thou wast not pre-
vailed on to the outward evil or utmost issue of thy tempta-
tion ; yet hast thou not been foiled ; hath not thy soul been
sullied and grievously perplexed with it? yea, didst thou
ever in thy life come fairly off without sensible loss, from
any temptation almost that thou hadst to deal withal ; and
wouldst thou willingly be entangled again ? If thou art at
liberty take heed, enter no more if it be possible;, lest a worse
thing happen to thee.
These, I say, are some of those many considerations,
that might be insisted on, to manifest the importance of the
truth proposed, and the fulness of our concernment, in taking
care that we enter not into temptation.
Against what hath been spoken, some objections that
secretly insinuate themselves into the souls of men, and have
an efficacy to make them negligent and careless, in this
thing which is of such importance to them ; a duty of such
indispensable necessity to them who intend to walk with
God in any peace, or with any faithfulness ; are to be con-
sidered and removed. And they are these that follow :
Ob. 1. Why should we so fear and labour to avoid tempta-
tion? James i. 2. we are commanded to count it all 'joy
when we fall into divers temptations ;' now certainly I
need not solicitously avoid the falling into that, which,
when I am fallen into, I am to count it all joy. To which I
answer,
1 . You will not hold by this rule in all things ; namely,
that a man need not seek to avoid that, which when he
cannot but fall into, it is his duty to rejoice therein. The
same apostle bids the rich ' rejoice that they are made low;'
chap. i. 10. And without doubt to him who is acquainted
with the goodness and wisdom, and love of God in his dis-
pensations in every condition that is needful for him, it will
be a matter of rejoicing to him ; but yet how few rich
godly men can you persuade not to take heed, and use all
lawful means that they be not made poor and low; and in
most cases, the truth is it were their sin, not to do so. It is
our business to make good our stations, and to secure our-
selves as we can ; if God alter our condition, we are to rejoice
OF TEMPTATION. 467
in it : if the temptations here mentioned befall us, we may
have cause to rejoice ; but not if by a neglect of duty we fall
into them.
2. Temptations are taken two ways :
(1.) Passively and merely materially, for such things, as
are, or in some cases, may be temptations. Or,
(2.) Actively for such as do entice to sin. James speaks
of temptations in the first sense only ; for having said,
' Count it all joy when you enter into manifold temptations ;'
ver. 2. he adds, ver. 12. 'Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation;' for when he is tried he shall receive the crown
of life. But now whereas a man might say, if this be so,
then temptations are good, and from God ; no, says James,
take temptation in such a sense, as that it is a thing enticing
and leading to sin ; so God tempts none ; but ever}"- man
is tempted of his own lust; ver. 13, 14. To have such
temptations, to be tempted to sin, that is not the blessed
thing I intend ; but the enduring of afflictions that God
sends for the trial of our faith; that is a blessed thing: so
that though I must count it all joy, when through the will
of God I fall into divers afflictions, for my trial, which yet
have the matter of temptation in them, yet I am to use all
care and diligence, that my lust have no occasions or ad-
vantages given unto it, to tempt me to sin.
Ob. 2. But was not our Saviour Christ himself tempted :
and is it evil to be brought into the same state and condition
with him? Yea, it is not only said, that he was tempted :
but his being so, is expressed as a thing advantageous, and
conducing to his mercifulness as our priest, Heb. ii. 17, 18.
' In that himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to
succour them that are tempted.' And he makes it a ground
of a great promise to his disciples, that they had abode with
him in his temptations ; Luke xxii. 28.
Am. It is true, our Saviour was tempted : but yet his temp-
tations are reckoned among the evils that befell him in the
days of his flesh ; things that come on him through the ma-
lice of the world, and the prince thereof. He did not wil-
fully cast himself into temptation, which he said was 'to
tempt the Lord our God ;' Matt. iv. 7. as indeed willingly to
enter into any temptation is highly to tempt God. Now our
condition is so, that use the greatest diligence and watch-
2 H 2
468 OF TEMPTATfOX.
fulness that we can, yet we shall be sure to be tempted, and
be made like to Christ therein. This hinders not, but that
it is our duty to the utmost to prevent our falling into them ;
and that namely on this account. Christ had only the suf-
fering part of temptation, when he entered into it; we have
also the sinning part of it. When the prince of this world
came to Christ he ' had no part in him,' but when he comes
to us, he hath so in us ; so that though in one effect of
temptations, namely, trials and disquietness ; we are made
like to Christ and so are to rejoice, as far as by any means
that is produced ; yet by another, we are made unlike to
him, which is our being defiled and entangled, and are there-
fore to seek by all means to avoid them, we never come off
like Christ : who of us enter into temptation and are not
defiled?
Ob. 3. Butwhatneed this great endeavour and carefulness?
Is it not said that * God is faithful, who will not suffer us to
be tempted above what we are able, but will with the temp-
tation also make a way to escape?' 1 Cor. x. 13. and 'he
knowethhow to deliver the godly out of temptation;' 2 Pet.
ii. 9. What need we then be solicitous that we enter not into
them ?
Ans. I much question what assistance he will have from
God in his temptation, who willingly enters into it, because
he supposes God hath promised to deliver him out of it. The
Lord knows, that through the craft of Satan, the subtlety
and malice of the world, the deceitfulness of sin that doth
so easily beset us, when we have done our utmost, yet we
shall enter into divers temptations ; in his love, care, ten-
derness, and faithfulness, he hath provided such a suffi-
ciency of grace for us, that they shall not utterly prevail to
make an everlasting separation between him and our souls ;
yet I have three things to say to this objection :
(1.) He that wilfully or negligently enters into tempta-
tion, hath no reason in the world to promise himself any
assistance from God, or any deliverance from the tempta-
tion whereunto he is entered. The promise is made to them
whom temptations do befall in their way, whether they will,
or not; not them that wilfully fall into them, that run out
of their way to meet with them. And therefore the devil (as
is usually observed) when he tempted our Saviour, left out
OF TEMPTATION. 469
that expression of the text of Scripture, which he wrested
to his purpose, ' all thy ways :' the promise of deliverance
is to them who are in their ways ; whereof this is one prin-
cipal, to beware of temptation.
(2.) Though there be a sufficiency of grace provided for
all the elect, that they shall by no temptation fall utterly
from God ; yet it would make any gracious heart to trem-
ble, to think what dishonour to God, what scandal to the
gospel, what wofid darkness and disquietness they may
bring upon their own souls, though they perish not. And
they who are scared by nothing but fear of hell, on whom
other considerations short thereof have no influence, in my
apprehension, have more reason to fear it, than perhaps they
are aware of.
(3.) To enter on temptation on this account, is to ven-
ture on sin (which is the same with continuing in sin), that
grace may abound, Rom. vi. 1, 2. which the apostle rejects
the thoughts of with greatest detestation ; is it not a mad-
ness for a man willingly to suffer the ship wherein he is, to
split itself on a rock, to the irrecoverable loss of his mer-
chandise, because he supposes he shall in his own person
swim safely to shore on a plank ? Is it less in him, who will
hazard the shipwreck of all his copafort, peace, joy, and so
much of the glory of God, and honour of the gospel as he is
intrusted with, merely on supposition that his soul shall yet
escape ? These things a man would think did not deserve to
be mentioned ; and yet with such as these do poor souls
sometimes delude themselves.
CHAP. IV.
Particular cases proposed to consideration : the first its restitution in sun-
dry particulars ; several discoveries of the state of a soul enterinr/ into
temptation.
TiiKSE things being premised in general, I proceed to the
consideration of three particular cases arising from the truth
proposed, the first whereof relates unto the thing itself; the
second unto the time or season thereof; and the last unto
our deportment in reference unto the prevention of the evil
treated of.
470 OF TEMPTATION.
1. Then it may be inquired. How a man may know, when
he is entered into temptation ?
2. What seasons there are wherein a man may, and ought
to fear, that an hour of temptation is at hand.
3. What directions are to be given, for the preventing
of our entering into temptation.
1 . How shall a man know whether he be entered into
temptation or no, is our first inquiry : I say then,
(1.) When a man is drawn into any sin, he may be sure
that he hath entered into temptation. All sin is from temp-
tation; James i, 14. Sin is a fruit, that comes only from that
root. Though a man be never so suddenly, or violently sur-
prised in, or with any sin, yet it is from some temptation or
other, that he hatli been so surprised : so the apostle. Gal.
vi. 1. If a man be surprised, overtaken with a fault, yet he
was tempted to it : for, says he, 'Consider thyself lest thou
also be tempted,' that is, as he was, when he was so sur-
prised, as it were at unawares. This men sometimes take no
notice of, to their great disadvantage ; when they are over-
taken with a sin, they set themselves to repent of that sin,
but do not consider the temptation that w^as the cause of it,
to set themselves against that also ; to take care that they
enter no more into it ; hence are they quickly again entan-
gled by it; though they have the greatest detestation of the
sin itself, that can be expressed. He that would indeed get
the conquest over any sin, must consider his temptations to
it, and strike at that root; without deliverance from thence,
he will not be healed.
This is a folly that possesses many, who have yet a quick
and living sense of sin : they are sensible of their sins, not
of their temptations ; are displeased with the bitter fruit, but
cherish the poisonous root : hence in the midst of their hu-
miliations for sin, they will continue in those ways, those
societies, in the pursuit of those ends, which have occasion-
ed that sin ; of which more afterward.
(2.) Temptations have several degrees ; some arise to such
an height, do so press on the soul, so cruciate and disquiet
it, so fight against all opposition that is made to it; that it
must needs be past all doubt to him who is so assaulted,
that it is a peculiar power of temptation that he is to wrestle
withal. When a fever rages, a man knows he is sick, un-
OF TEMPTATION. 471
less his distemper have made him mad. The lusts of men,
as James tells us, entice, draw away, and seduce them to sin;
but this they do of themselves without peculiar instigation, in
a more quiet, even, and sedate manner ; if they grow violent,
if they hurry the soul up and down, give it no rest, the soul
may know that they have got the help of temptation to their
assistance. Take an empty vessel, and put it into some
stream that is in its course to the sea ; it will infallibly be car-
ried thither, according to the course and speed of the stream ;
but let strong winds arise upon it, it will be driven v/ith vio-
lence on every bank and rock, until being broken in pieces,
it is swallowed up of the ocean. Men's lusts will infallibly
(if not mortified in the death of Christ) carry them into eter-
nal ruin ; but oftentimes without much noise, according to
the course of the stream of their corruptions. But let the
wind of strong temptations befall them, they are hurried into
innumerable scandalous sins, and so broken upon all ac-
counts, are swallowed up in eternity ; so is it in general with
men; so in particular. Hezekiah had the root of pride in
him always, yet it did not make him run up and down to
shew his treasure and his riches, until he fell into tempta-
tion, by the ambassadors of the king of Babylon ; so had
David ; yet could he keep off from numbering the people,
until Satan stood up and provoked him, and solicited him
to do it. Judas was covetous from the beginning, yet he
did not contrive to satisfy it by selling of his Master, until
the devil entered into him, and he thereby into temptation.
The like may be said of Abraham, Jonah, Peter, and the rest.
So that when any lust or corruption whatever tumultuates
and disquietetli the soul, puts it with violence on sin ; let
the soul know that it hath got the advantage of some out-
ward temptation, though as yet it perceiveth not wherein, or
at least is become itself a peculiar temptation, by some in-
citation or provocation, that hath befallen it and is to be
looked to more than ordinarily.
(3.) Eiytering into temptation may be seen in the lesser
degrees of it. As for instance, when the heart begins secretly
to like the matter of the temptation, and is content to feed
it, and increase it by any %yays that it may, without down-
right sin.
In particular, a man begins to be in repute for piety.
472 OF TEMPTATION.
wisdom, learning, or the like : he is spoken of much to that
purpose ; his heart is tickled to hear of it, and his pride
and ambition afF(^cted with it. If this man, now with all
his strength, ply the things from whence his repute and es-
teem and glory amongst men do spring, with a secret eye to
have it increased, he is entering into temptation, which if
he take not heed, will quickly render him a slave of lust. So
was it with Jehu, he perceived that his repute for zeal began
to grow abroad, and he got honour by it; Jonadab comes in
his way, a good and holy man ; now, thinks Jehu, I have an
opportunity to grow in the honour of my zeal : so he calls
Jonadab to him, and to work he goes most seriously : the
things he did were good in themselves, but he was entered
into temptation, and served his lust in all that he did. So
is it with many scholars, they find themselves esteemed and
favoured for their learning, this takes hold of the pride and
ambition of their hearts ; hence they set themselves to study
with all diligence day and night, a thing good in itself; but
they do it, that they may satisfy the thoughts and words of
men wherein they delight; and so in all they do, they make
provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof.
It is true, God oftentimes brings light out of this dark-
ness, and turns things to a better issue. After it may be a
man hath studied sundry years, with an eye upon his lusts;
his ambition, pride, and vain-glory ; rising early, and going
to bed late, to give them satisfaction ; God comes in with
his grace ; turns the soul to himself ; robs those Egyptian
lusts, and so consecrates that to the use of the tabernacle,
which was provided for idols.
Men may be thus entangled in better things than learning,
even in the profession of piety, in their labour in the ministry,
and the like. Some men's profession is a snare to them ;
they are in reputation, and are much honoured on the ac-
count of their profession and strict walking. This often falls
out in the days wherein we live, wherein all things are carried
by parties ; some find themselves on the accounts mentioned
perhaps to be the darlings, and ' ingentia decora,' or olory
of their party ; if thoughts hereof secretly insinuate them-
selves into their hearts, and influence them into more than
ordinary diligence and activity in their way and profession,
they are entangled ; and instead of aiming at more glorv.
OF TEMPTATION- 473
had need lie in the dust, in a sense of their own vileness ;
and so close is this temptation, that oftentimes it requires
no food to feed upon, but that he who is entangled with it,
do avoid all means and ways of honour and reputation ; so
that it can but whisper in the heart, that, that avoidance is
honourable. The same may be the condition with men, as
was said, in preaching the gospel, in the work of the mi-
nistry ; many things in that work may yield them esteem,
their ability, their plainness, their frequency, their success ;
and all in this sense maybe fuel unto temptations. Let then
a man know, that when he likes that which feeds his lust,
and keeps it up by ways either good in themselves, or not
downright sinful, he is entered into temptation.
4. When by a man's state or condition of life, or any
means whatever, it comes to pass, that his lust and any
temptation meet with occasions and opportunities for its
provocation and stirring up ; let that man know, whether
he perceive it or not, that he is certainly entered into temp-
tation. I told you before, that to enter into temptation, is
not merely to be tempted, but so to be under the power of
it, as to be entangled by it. Now it is impossible almost,
for a man to have opportunities, occasions, advantages suited
to his lust and corruption, but he will be entangled. If
ambassadors come from the king of Babylon, Hezekiah's
pride will cast him into temptation. If Hazael be king of
Syria, his cruelty and ambition will make him to rao-e
savagely against Israel ; if the priests come with their pieces
of silver, Judas's covetousness will instantly be at work to
sell his Master ; and many instances of the like kind may in
the days wherein we live be given. Some men think to play
on the hole of the asp, and not be stung, to touch pitch, and
not be defiled; to take fire in their clothes, and not be burnt :
but they will be mistaken. If thy business, course of life,
societies, or whatever else it be of the like kind, do cast thee
on such things, ways, persons, as suit thy lust or corruption;
know that thou art entered into temptation ; how thou wilt
come out, God only knows. Let us suppose a man that hath
any seeds of filthiness in his heart, engaged in the course
of his life, in society light, vain, and foolish ; what notice
soever, little, great, or none at all, it be, that he takes of it ;
he is undoubtedly entered into temptation ; so is it with am-
474 OF TEMPTATION.
bition in high places ; passion in a multitude of perplexing
affairs : polluted, corrupt fancy in vain societies; and the
perusal of idle books, or treatises of vanity and folly ; fire
and things combustible, may more easily be induced to lie
together without affecting each other, than peculiar lusts
and suitable objects or occasions for their exercise.
5. When a man is weakened, made negligent, or formal
in duty, when he can omit duties, or content himself with a
careless, lifeless performance of them, without delight, joy,
or satisfaction to his soul, who had another frame formerly :
let him know, that though he may not be acquainted with
ther particular distemper, wherein it consists; yet in some-
thing or other, he is entered into temptation, which at the
length he will find evident to his trouble and peril. How many
have we seen and known in our days, who from a warm profes-
sion, have fallen to be negligent, careless, indifferent in pray-
ing, reading, hearing, and the like ? Give an instance of one
who hath come off without a wound, and I dare say you may
find out a hundred for him that have manifested themselves
to have been asleep on the top of the mast ; that they were in
the jaws of some vile temptation or other, that afterward
brought forth bitter fruit in their lives and ways : from some
few returners from folly, we have every day these doleful com-
plaints made. ' Oh, I neglected private prayer, I did not me-
ditate on the word, nor attend to hearing ; but rather de-
spised these things, and yet said, I was rich, and wanted
nothing; little did I consider, that this unclean lust was
ripening in my heart, this atheism, these abominations were
fomenting there.' This is a certain rule if his heart grow cold,
negligent, or formal in duties of the worship of God, and
that either as to the matter, or manner of them, who hath
had another frame, one temptation or other, hath laid hold
upon him. World, or pride, or uncleanness, or self-seeking,
or malice and envy, or one thing or other, hath possessed
his spirit ; grey hairs are here and there upon him, tliougli
he perceive it not. And this is to be observed as to the
manner of duties, as well as to the matter. Men may upon
many sinister accounts, especially for the satisfaction of
their consciences, keep up and frequent duties of religion,
as to the substance and matter of them, when they have no
heart to them, no life in them as to the spirituality required
OF TEMPTATION. 475
in their performance, Sardis kept up the performance of
duties, and had therefore a name to live ; but wanted spi-
ritual life in their performances, and was therefore dead ;
Rev. iii. 1. As it is in distempers of the body; if a man
finds his spirits faint, his heart oppressed, his head heavy,
the whole person indisposed, though he do not yet actually
burn, nor rave ; yet he will cry, I fear I am entering into a
fever, I am so out of order and indisposed. A man may do
so in this sickness of the soul, if he find his pulse not beat
aright and evenly towards duties of worship, and communion
with God, if his spirit be low, and his heart faint in them, let
him conclude, though his lust do not yet burn nor rage, that
he is entered into temptation, and it is high time for him
to consider the particular causes of his distemper. If the
head be heavy, and slumber in the things of grace, if the
heart be cold in duties, evil lies at the door. And if such
a soul do escape a great temptation unto sin, yet it shall not
escape a great temptation by desertion. The spouse cries,
' I sleep,' Cant. v. 2. and that she ' had put off her coat, and
could not put it on;' had an indisposition to duties and
communion with Christ. What is the next news you have
of her ? verse 6. her beloved had withdrawn himself; Christ
was gone, and she seeks him long and finds him not. There
is such a suitableness between the new nature thatis wrought
and created in believers, and the duties of the worship of
God, that they will not be parted nor kept asunder, unless
it be by the interposition of some disturbing distemper. The
new creature feeds upon them, is strengthened and increased
by them, finds sweetness in them, yea, meets in them with
its God and Father ; so that it cannot but of itself, unless
made sick by some temptation, but delight in them, and de-
sire to be in the exercise of them ; this frame is described in
the 119th Psalm throughout. It is not I say cast out of this
frame and temper, unless it be oppressed, and disordered,
by one secret temptation, or other. Sundry other evidences
there are of a soul's entering into temptation, which upon
inquiry it may discover.
1 propose this to take off the security that we are apt to
fall into : and to manifest what is the peculiar duty that we
are to apply ourselves -unto in the special seasons of temp-
tation. For he that is already entered into temptation is to
47G OF TEMPTATION.
apply himself unto means for disentanglement, not to labour
to prevent his entering in. How this may be done I shall
afterward declare.
CHAP. V.
Tlie second case proposed, or inqxiirie.s resolved. What are the best direc-
tions, to prevent entering into teynptation ; those directions laid down.
The directions given by our Saviour ; ' Watch and pray.' What is in-
cluded therein. 1. Sense of the danger of temptation. 2. That it is not
in our power to keep ourselves. 3. Faith in promises of preservation. Of
prayer in particular. Of watching.
Having seen the danger of entering into temptation, and
also discovered the ways and seasons whereby and wherein
men usually do so ; our second inquiry is. What general
directions may be given to preserve a soul from that con-
dition that hath been spoken of? And we see our Saviour's
direction in the place spoken of before. Matt. xxvi. 41. he
sums up all in these two words ' watch and pray ;' I shall a
little labour to unfold them, and shew what is enwrapped
and contained in them : and that both jointly and severally.
1. There is included in them, a clear abiding apprehen-
sion of the great evil, that there is in entering into tempta-
tion. That which a man watches and prays against, he
looks upon as evil to him, and by all means to be avoided.
This then is the first direction. Always bear in mind
the great danger that it is for any soul to enter into tempta-
tion.
It is a woful thing to consider what slight thoughts the
most have of this thing : so men can keep themselves from
sin itself, in open action, they are content, they scarce aim
at more ; on any temptation in the world, all sorts of men
will venture at any time. How will young men put them-
selves on any company, any society ; at first being delighted
with evil company, then with the evil of the company ? Hqw
vain are all admonitions and exhortations to them, to take
heed of such persons, debauched in themselves, corrupters
of others, destroyers of souls ? At first they will venture on
the company, abhorring the thoughts of practising their
OF TEMPTATION. 477
lewdness : but what is the issue ? Unless it Be here or there
one, whom God snatches with a mighty hand from the jaws
of destruction, they are all lost, and become after awhile in
love with the evil, which at first they abhorred. This open
door to the ruin of souls, is too evident ; and woful experi-
ence makes it no less evident, that it is almost impossible to
fasten upon many poor creatures, any fear or dread of temp-
tation, who yet will profess a fear and abhorrency of sin.
Would it were only thus with young men, such as are unac-
customed to the yoke of the Lord. What sort of men is free
from this folly in one thing or other ? How many professors
have I known that would plead for their liberty, as they called
it? They could hear any thing, all things ; all sorts of men, all
men ; they would try all things, whether they come to them
in the way of God or no ; and on that account would run to
hear and to attend to every broacher of false and abominable
opinions ; every seducer, though stigmatized by the genera-
lity of the saints, for such a one they had their liberty, they
could do it ; but the opinions they hated as much as any ;
what hath been the issue ? I scarce ever knew any come off
without a wound ; the most have had their faith, overthrown:
let no man then pretend to fear sin, that doth not fear temp-
tation to it. They are too nearly allied, to be separated.
Satan hath put them so together, that it is very hard, for any
man to put them asunder : he hates not the fruit, who de-
lights in the root.
When men see that such ways, such companies, such
courses, such businesses, such studies and aims do entangle
them, make them cold, careless, are quench-coals to them,
indispose them to even, universal, and constant obedience,
if they adventure on them, sin Ijes at the door. It is a tender
frame of spirit, sensible of its own weakness and corruption,
of the craft of Satan, of the evil of sin, of the efficacy of
temptation, that can perform his duty. And yet until we
bring our hearts to this frame, upon the considerations be-
fore-mentioned, or the like that may be proposed, we shall
never free ourselves from sinful entanglements. Boldness
upon temptation, springing from several pretences hath, as
is known, ruined innumerable professors in these days ; and
still continues to cast many down from their excellency ; nor
have I the least hope of a more fruitful profession amongst
478 OF TEMPTATION.
US, until I see more fear of temptation. Sin will not long-
seem great or heavy unto any, to whom temptations seem
light or small.
This is the first thing enwrapped in this general direc-
tion. The daily exercise of our thoughts with an apprehen-
sion of the great danger that lies in entering into temptation,
is required of us. Grief of the Spirit of God, disqiiietment
of our own souls, loss of peace, hazard of eternal welfare,
lies at the door ; if the soul he not prevailed withal, to the
observation of this direction, all that ensues, will be of no
value ; temptation despised will conquer : and if the heart
be made tender and watchful here, half the work of securing
a good conversation is over. And let not him go any farther,
who resolves not to improve this direction in a daily consci-
entious observation of it.
2. There is this in it also, that it is not a thing in our
own power, to keep and preserve ourselves from entering
into temptation. Therefore are we to pray that we may be
preserved from it, because we cannot save ourselves.
This is another means of preservation ; as we have no
strength to resist a temptation when it doth come, when we
are entered into it, but shall fall under it, without a supply
of sufficiency of grace from God, so to reckon that we have
no power or wisdom to keep ourselves from entering into
temptation, but must be kept by the power and wisdom of
God, is a preserving principle; 1 Peter i. 5. We are in all
things kept by the power of God. This our Saviour instructs
us in, not only by directing us to pray that we be not led
into temptation ; but also by his own praying for us, that
we may be kept from it ; John xvii. 15. ' I pray not that
thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou
shouldest keej) them from the evil :' that is, the temptations
of the world, unto evil, unto sin ; ek tov irovvpov, * out of the
evil' that is in the world, that is temptation, which is all that
is evil in the world; or from the evil one, who in the world,
makes use of the world, unto temptation. Christ prays his
Father to keep us ; and instructs us to pray that we be so
kept ; it is not then a thing in our own power. The ways
of our entering into temptation are so many, various, and im-
perceptible ; the means of it so efficacious and powerful, the
entrances of it so deceitful, subtle, insensible, and plausible ;
OF TEMPTATION. 479
our weakness, our unwatclifulness, so unspeakable, that we
cannot in the least keep or preserve ourselves from it : we
fail both in wisdom and power for this work.
Let the heart then commune with itself and say, I am poor
and weak, Satan is subtle, cunning, powerful; watching
constantly for advantages against my soul : the world ear-
nest, pressing, and full of specious pleas, innumerable pre-
tences, and ways of deceit ; my own corruption violent and
tumultuating, enticing, entangling, conceiving sin, and war-
ring in me, against me. Occasions and advantages of temp-
tation innumerable in all things I have done or suffer, in all
businesses and persons with whom I converse. The first be-
ginnings of temptation insensible and plausible ; so that left
unto myself I shall not know that I am ensnared, until my
bonds be made strong, and sin hath got ground in my heart;
therefore on God alone will I rely for preservation, and con-
tinually will I look up to him, on that account. This will
make the soul be always committing itself to the care of
God, resting itself on him ; and to do nothing, undertake
nothing, &c. without asking counsel of him. So that a double
advantage will arise from the observation of this direction,
both of singular use for the soul's preservation from the evil
feared.
(1.) The engagement of the grace and compassion of
God, who hath called the fatherless and helpless to rest
upon him; nor did ever soul fail of supplies, who, in a sense
of want, rolled itself on him, on the account of his gracious
invitation.
(2.) The keeping of it in such a frame, as on various ac-
counts, is useful for its preservation ; he that looks to God
for assistance in a due manner, is both sensible of his danger,
and conscientiously careful in the use of means to preserve
himself, which two, of what importance they are in this case,
may easily be apprehended, by them who have their hearts
exercised in these things.
3. This also is in it, act faith on the promise of God for
preservation. To believe that he will preserve us, is a means
of preservation. For this God will certainly do, or make a
way for us to escape out of temptation, if we fall into it,
under such a believing frame. We are to pray for what
God hath promised. Our requests are to be regulated by
480 OF TEMPTATIOX.
his promises and commands, which are of the same extent ;
faith closes with the promises, and so finds relief in this
case. This James instructs us in ; chap. i. 5. 7. What we
want we must ask of God : but we must ask it in faith, for
otherwise we must not think that we shall receive any thing of
the Lord. This then also is in this direction of our Saviour;
that we act faith on the promises of God, for our preserva-
tion out of temptation. He hath promised that he will keep
us in all our ways ; that we shall be directed in a way, that
though we are fools, ' we shall not err therem;' isa. xxxv. 8.
that he will lead us, guide us, and deliver us from the evil
one. Set faith on work on these promises of God, and ex-
pect a good and comfortable issue. It is not easily con-
ceived, what a train of graces faith is attended withal, when
it goes forth to meet Christ in the promises ; nor what a
power for the preservation of the soul lies in this thing : but
I have spoken to this elsewhere.*"
4. Weigh these things severally, and,
(1.) Take prayer into consideration; to pray that we enter
not into temptation, is a means to preserve us from it. Glo-
rious things are by all men that know aught of those things,
spoken of this duty ; and yet the truth is, not one half of
its excellency, power, and efficacy is known. It is not my
business to speak of it in general ; but this I say as to my
present purpose : he that would be little in temptation, let
him be much in prayer. This calls in the suitable help and
succour that is laid up in Christ for us ; Heb. iv. 16. This
casteth our souls into a frame of opposition to every tempta-
tion. When Paul had given instruction for the taking to
ourselves the whole armour of God, that we may resist and
stand in the time of temptation, he adds this general close of
the whole ; Eph, vi. 18. ' Praying always with all prayer and
supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto, with all
perseverance and supplication.'
Without this all the rest will be of no efficacy for the
end proposed. And therefore consider what weight he lays
on it : ' praying always,' that is, at all times and seasons, or
be always ready and prepared for the discharge of that duty ;
Luke xviii. 1. Eph. vi. 18. * With all prayer and supplica-
tion in the Spirit;' putting forth all kinds of desires unto
^ Mortification of sin in believers.
OF TEMPTATION. ' 481
God, that are suited to our condition, according to his will,
and which we are assisted in by the Spirit, and watching
thereunto, lest we be diverted by any thing whatever ; and
that not for a little while, but with all perseverance ; conti-
nuance lengthened out to the utmost, so shall we stand.
The soul so framed, is in a sure posture ; and this is one of
the means without which this work will not be done. If we
do not abide in prayer, we shall abide in cursed temptations.
Let this then be another direction. Abide in prayer, and
that expressly to this purpose ; that we enter not into
temptations : let this be one part of our daily contending
with God; that he would preserve our souls, and keep our
hearts and our ways, that we be not entangled ; that his
good and wise providence will order our ways and affairs,
that no pressing temptation befall us ; that he would give us
diligence, carefulness, and watchfulness over our own ways :
so shall we be delivered, when others are held with the cords
of their own folly.
CHAP. VI.
Of watching that we enter not into temptation : the nature and efficacy of
that duty. The first part of it, as to the special seasons of temptation.
I. The season; in unusual prosperity. The 2. In a slumber of grace.
3. A season of great spiritual enjoyments. The 4. A season of self-
confidence.
The other part of our Saviour's direction, namely, to watch,
is more general, and extends itself to many particulars ; I
shall fix on some things that are contained therein.
1. Watch the seasons wherein men usually do enter into
temptation.
There are sundry seasons, wherein anhour of temptation
is commonly at hand ; and will unavoidably seize upon the
soul, unless it be delivered by mercy in the use of watchful-
ness. When we are under such a season, then are we pecu-
liarly to be upon our guard that we enter not into, that we
fall not under the power of temptation. Some of those sea-
sons may be named.
(1.) A season of unusual outward prosperity is usually
VOL. VII. 2 I
482 OF TEMPTATION'.
accompanied with an hour of temptation. Prosperity and
temptation go together ; yea, prosperity is a temptation ;
many temptations; and that because without eminent sup-
plies of grace, it is apt to cast a soul into a frame and
temper exposed to any temptation, and provides it with
fuel and food for all ; it hath provision for lust ; and darts
for Satan.
The wise man tells us, that the * prosperity of fools de-
stroys them ;' Prov. i. 31. It hardens them in their way,
makes them despise instruction, and put the evil day (whose
terror should influence them into amendment) far from them.
Without a special assistance, it hath an inconceivably ma-
lignant influence on believers themselves. Hence Aguv
prays against riches, because of the temptation that attends
them, ' Lest,' saith he, ' 1 be full and deny thee, and say.
Who is the Lord?' Prov. xxx, 8, 9. Lest, being filled with
them he should forget the Lord ; as God complains that his
people did, Hos. xiii, 6. We know how David was mistaken
in this case, Psal. xxx. 6. * I said in my prosperity, I shall
never be moved :' all is well, and vv'ill be well, but what was
at hand, what lay at the door, that David thought not of?
ver. 7. 'Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled :' God
was ready to hide his face, and David to enter into a tempta-
tion of desertion, and he knew it not.
As then unto a prosperous condition. I shall not run
cross to Solomon's counsel, ' In the day of prosperity re-
joice ;' Eccles. vii. 14. Rejoice in the God of thy mercies,
who doth thee good in his patience and forbearance, notwith-
standing all thy unworthiness : yet I may add to it from the
same foundation of wisdom, ' Consider also, lest evil lie at
the door.' A man in that state is in the midst of snares ;
Satan hath many advantages against him : he forgeth darts
out of all his enjoyments, and if he watch not, he will be en-
tangled before he is aware.
Thou wantest that which should poise and ballast thy
heart. Formality in religion will be apt to creep upon thee,
and that lays the soul open to all temptations in their full
power and strength. Satisfaction and delight in creature
comforts, the poison of the soul, will be apt to grow upon
thee. In such a time be vigilant, be circumspect, or thou
wilt be surprised. Job says, that in his affliction God
OF TEMPTATIOX. 483
made his heart soft; chap, xxiii. 16. There is a hardness,
an insensible want of spiritual sense, gathered in prosperity,
that if not watched against, will expose the heart to the de-
ceits of sin and baits of Satan : watch and pray in this sea-
son ; many men's negligence in it hath cost them dear, their
woful experience cries out to take heed. Blessed is he that
feareth always ; but especially in a time of prosperity.
(2.) As in part was manifested before, a time of the
slumber of srace, of neo-lect in communion with God, of for-
raality in duty, is a season to be watched in, as that which
hath certainly some other temptation attending it.
Let a soul in such an estate awake and look about him ;
his enemy is at band, and he is ready to fall into such a con-
dition as may cost him dear all the days of his life : his pre-
sent estate is bad enough in itself; but it is an indication of
that which is worse, that lies at the door. The disciples
that were with Christ in the mount, had not only a bodily,
but a spiritual drowsiness upon them. What says our Sa-
viour to them? 'Arise, watch and pray, that you enter not
into temptation.' We know how near one of them was to a
bitter hour of temptation, and not watching as he ought, he
immediately entered into it.
I mentioned before the case of the spouse, Cant. v. 2 — 5.
she slept, and was drowsy, and unwilling to gird up her-
self to a vigorous performance of duties, in a way of quick
active communion with Christ. Before she is aware, she
hath lost her beloved ; then she moans, inquires, cries, en-
dures woundings, reproaches, and all, before she obtains him
again. Consider then, O poor soul, thy state and condition !
doth thy light bum dim? or though it give to others as great
a blaze as formerly, yet thou seest not so clearly the face of
God in Christ, 2 Cor. iv. 6. by it as thou hast done ? Is thy
zeal cold? or if it do the same works as formerly, yet thy
heart is not warmed with the love of God, and to God, in
them as formerly, but only thou proceedest in the course
thou hast been in ? Art thou negligent in the duties of pray-
ing: or hearing? Or if thou dost observe them, thou doest it
not with that life and vigour as formerly ? Dost thou flag m
thy profession? Or if thou keep it up, yet thy wheels are
oiled by some sinister respects from within or without?
Does thy delight in the people of God faint and grow cold?
2 i2
484 OF TEMPTATION.
Or is thy love to them changing from that which is purely
spiritual, into that which is very carnal, upon the account of
suitableness of principles, and natural spirits, if not worse
foundations? If thou art drowsing in such a condition as
this, take heed, thou art falling into some woful tempta-
tion, that will break all thy bones, and give thee wounds
that shall stick by thee all the days of thy life. Yea, when
thou awakest, thou wilt find that it hath indeed laid hold of
thee already, though thou perceivedst it not ; it hath smitten
and wounded thee, though thou hast not complained, nor
sought for relief or healing.
Such was the state of the church of Sardis, Rev. iii. 2.
the things that remained were ready to die : be watchful,
says our Saviour, and strengthen them, or a worse thing will
befall thee: if any that reads the word of this direction be
in this condition, if he hath any regard of his poor soul, let
him now awake, before he be entangled beyond recovery.
Take this warning from God ; despise it not.
(3.) A season of great spiritual enjoyments, is often by
the malice of Satan, and the weakness of our hearts, turned
into a season of danger, as to this business of temptation.
We know how the case stood with Paul, 2 Cor. xii. 7.
he had glorious spiritual revelations of God and Jesus
Christ ; instantly Satan falls upon him ; a messenger from
him buffets him, so that he earnestly begs its departure ;
but yet is left to struggle with it. God is pleased sometimes
to give us especial discoveries of himself and his love; to fill
the heart with his kindness, Christ takes us into the ban-
queting-house, and gives our hearts their fills of love ; and
this by some signal work of his Spirit, overpowering us with
a sense of love, in the unspeakable privilege of adoption,
and so fills our souls with joy unspeakable and glorious.
A man would think, this was the securest condition in the
world : what soul docs not cry with Peter in the mount; 'It
is good for me to be here,' to abide here for ever? But yet
very frequently some bitter temptation is now at hand.
Satan sees, that being possessed by the joy before us, we
quickly neglect many ways of approach to our souls, wherein
he seeks and finds advantages against us. Is this then our
state and condition? Does God at anytime give us to drink
of the rivers of pleasure that are at his right hand, and sa-
OF TEMPTATION". 485
tisfy our souls with his kindness as with marrow and fatness ?
Let us not say, we shall never be moved ; we know not how
soon God may hide his face, or a messenger from Satan may
buffet us.
Besides, there lies oftentimes a greater and worse deceit
in this business. Men cheat their souls with their own
fancies, instead of a sense of God's love by the Holy Ghost ;
and when they are lifted up with their imaginations, it is not
expressible how fearfully they are exposed to all manner of
temptations ; and how then are they able to find relief against
their consciences, from their own foolish fancies, and de-
ceivings wherewith they sport themselves? May we not see
such every day? persons walking in the vanities and ways
of this world, yet boasting of their sense of the love of God ;
shall we believe them? We must not then believe truth it-
self; and how woful then must their condition needs be?
(4.) A fourth season, is a season of self-confidence ; then
usually temptation is at hand.
The case of Peter is clear unto this ; ' I vvill not deny
thee, though all men should deny thee, I will not ;' though
I were to die for it, I would not do it. This said the poor
man, when he stood on the very brink of that temptation,
that cost him in the issue such bitter tears. And this taught
him so far to know himself all his days, and gave him such
acquaintance with the state of all believers, that when he
had received more of the Spirit and of power, yet he had less
of confidence, and saw it was fit that others should have so
also ; and therefore persuades all men to ' pass the time of
their sojourning here in fear;' 1 Pet. i. 17. not to be confi-
dent and high, as he was, lest, as he did, they fall. At the
first trial he compares himself with others, and vaunts him-
self above them ; * Though all men should forsake thee, yet
I will not;' he fears every man more than himself; but when
our Saviour afterward comes to him, and puts him directly
upon the comparison, 'Simon Peter, lovest thou me, more
than these?' John xi. 15. he hath done comparing himself
with others, and only cryeth, ' Lord, thou knowest that I
love thee;' he will lift up himself above others no more.
Such a season oftentimes falls out. Temptations are abroad
in the world ; false doctrines, with innumerable other allure-
ments and provocations; we are ready every one to be very
486 Ol' TEMPTATION.
confident, that we shall not be surprised with them : though
all men should fall into these follies, yet we would not ;
surely we shall never go off from our walking with God; it
is impossible our hearts should be so sottish: but says the
apostle, ' Be not high minded, but fear ; let him that stand-
eth take heed lest he fall.' Wouldest thou think that Peter,
who had walked on the sea with Christ, confessed him to be
the Son of God, been with him on the mount when he heard
the voice from the excellent glory, should at the word of a
servant-girl, when there was no legal inquisition after him,
no process against him, nor any one in his condition, in-
stantly fall a cursing and swearing that he knew him not?
Let them take heed of self-confidence who have any mind to
take heed of sin. And this is the first thing in our watch-
ing, to consider well the seasons wherein temptation usually
makes its approaches to the soul, and be armed against
them. And these are some of the seasons, wherein tempta-
tions are nigh at hand.
CHAP. VII.
Several acts of watchfulness against temptation proposed. Watch the heart.
What it is to he watched in and about. Of the snares lying in men's na-
tural tempers. Of peculiar lusts. Of occasions suited to them. Watching
to lay in provision against temptation. Directions for tvatchfulness in
the first approaches of temptation. Directions after entering into tempta-
tion.
That part of watchfulness against temptation which we
have considered, regards the outward means, occasions, and
advantages of temptation ; proceed we now to that which
respects the heart itself which is wrought upon, and entan-
gled by temptation : watching or keeping of the heart, which
above all keepings we are obliged unto, comes within the
compass of this duty also ; for the right performance where-
of, take these ensuing directions :
1. Let him that would not enter into temptation labour
to know his own heart, to be acquainted with his own spirit,
his natural frame and temper, his lusts and corruptions, his
natural, sinful, or spiritual weaknesses, that finding where
OF TEMPTATION. 487
his weakness lies, he may be careful to. keep at a distance
from all occasions of sin.
Our Saviour tells the disciples, that 'they knew not what
spirit they were of;' which, under a pretence of zeal betrayed
them into ambition and desire of revenge. Had they known
it, they would have watched over themselves. David tells us,
Psal. xviii. 23. that he considered his ways, and ' kept him-
self from his iniquity,' which he was particularly prone unto.
There are advantages for temptations lying oftentimes
in men's natural tempers and constitutions ; some are na-
turally gentle, facile, easy to be entreated, pliable, which
though it be the noblest temper of nature, and the best and
choicest ground, when well broken up and fallowed for
grace to grow in, yet if not watched over, will be a means
of innumerable surprisals and entanglements in temptation.
Others are earthy, froward, morose; so that envy, malice,
selfishness, peevishness, harsh thoughts of others, repinings,
lie at the very door of their natures, and they can scarce
step out, but they are in the snare of one or other of them ;
others are passionate, and the like. Now he that would
watch that he enter not into temptation, had need be ac-
quainted with his own natural temper : that he may watch
over the treacheries that lie in it continually ; take heed lest
you have a Jehu in you, that shall make you drive furiously;
or, a Jonah in you, that will make you ready to repine; or
a David that will make you hasty in your determinations, as
he was often in the warmth and goodness of his natural
temper. He who watches not this thoroughly, who is not
exactly skilled in the knowledge of himself, will never be
disentangled from one temptation or another, all his days.
Again, as men have peculiar natural tempers, which ac-
cording as they are attended or managed, prove a greatjomes
of sin, or advantage to the exercise of grace ; so men may
have peculiar lusts or corruptions, which either by their na-
tural constitution or education and other prejudices, have got
deep rooting and strength in them. This, also, is to be found
out by him, who would not enter into temptation. Unless
he know it, unless his eyes be always on it, unless he ob-
serves its actings, motions, advantages, it will continually
be entanglmg and ensnaring of him. This, then, is our sixth
direction in this kind ; labour to know thine own frame and
488 OF TEMPTATION.
temper, what spirit thou art of; what associates in thy heart
Satan hath, where corruption is strong, where grace is weak;
what strong hold lust hath in thy natural constitution, and
the like. How many have all their comforts blasted, and peace
disturbed, by their natural passion and peevishness ? How
many are rendered useless in the world, by their frowardness
and discontent? How many are disquieted even by their own
gentleness and facility? Be acquainted then with thine own
heart, though it be deep, search it: though it be dark, in-
quire into it : though it give all its distempers other names,
than what are their due, believe it not. Were not men utter
strangers to themselves, did they not give flattering titles to
their natural distempers, did they not strive rather to justify,
palliate, or excuse the evils of their hearts, that are suited to
their natural tempers and constitutions, than to destroy them,
and by these means keep themselves off from taking a clear
and distinct view of them ; it were impossible that they
should all their days hanginthe same briars without attempt
for deliverance ; uselessness and scandal in professors, are
branches growing constantly on this root of unacquainted-
ness with their^own frame and temper; and how few are
there, who will either study them themselves, or bear with
those who would acquaint them with them ?
2. When thou knowest the state and condition of thy
heart, as to the particulars mentioned, watch against all such
occasions and opportunities, employments, societies, retire-
ments, businesses, as are apt to entangle thy natural temper,
or provoke thy corruption.
It may be, there are some ways, some societies, some bu-
sinesses, that thou never in thy life escapedst them, but suf-
feredst by them more or less, through their suitableness to
entice, or provoke thy corruption. It may be thou art in a
state and condition of life, that weary thee day by day, on
the account of thy ambition, passion, discontent or the like;
if thou hast any love to thy soul, it is time for thee to awake,
and to deliver thyself as a bird from the evil snare. Peter
will not come again in haste to the high-priest's hall, nor
would David walk again in the top of his house, when he
should have been in the high places of tlie field. But the
particulars of this instance are so various, and of such se-
veral natures in respect of several persons, that it is impos-
OP TEMPTATION. 489
sible to enumerate them ; Prov. iv. 14, 15. Herein lies no
small part of that wisdom, which consists in our ordering our
conversation aright. Seeing we have so little power over
our hearts, when once they meet with suitable provocations,
we are to keep them asunder, as a man would do fire and
the combustible parts of the house wherein he dwells.
3. Be sure to lay in provision in store, against the ap-
proaching of any temptation.
This also belongs to our watchfulness over our hearts.
You will say, what provision is intended, and where is it to
be laid up ? Our hearts, as our Saviour speaks, are our trea-
sury. There we lay up whatever we have, good or bad ; and
thence do we draw it, for our use ; Matt. xii. 35. It is the
heart, then, wherein provision is to be laid up against temp-
tation. When an enemy draws nigh to a fort or castle to be-
siege and take it ; oftentimes if he find it well manned, and
furnished with provision for a siege, and so able to hold out,
he withdraws and assaults it not. If Satan, the prince of
this world come, and find our hearts fortified against his
batteries, and provided to hold out, he not only departs, but
as James says, he flies ; he will fly from us, James iv. 7. for
the provision to be laid up, it is that which is provided in
the gospel tor us. Gospel provisions will do this work ;
that is, keep the heart full of a sense of the love of God in
Christ : this is the greatest preservative against the power of
temptation in the world. Joseph had this; and therefore,
on the first appearance of temptation, he cries out; ' How
can I do this great evil, and sin against God ?' And there is
an end of the temptation, as to him, it lays no hold on him,
bvit departs. He was furnished with such a ready sense of
the love of God, as temptation could not stand before ; Gen.
xxxviii. 9. ' The love of Christ constrains us,' saith the apo-
stle, * to live to him,' 2 Cor. v. 14. and so consequently, to
withstand temptation. A man may, nay, he ought to lay in
provisions of the law also ; fear of death, hell, punishment,
with the terror of the Lord in them. But these are far more
easily conquered than the other : nay, they will never stand
alone against a vigorous assault. They are conquered, or
convinced persons every day : hearts stored with them will
struggle for awhile, but quickly give over. But store the
heart with a sense of the love of God in Christ; with the
490 OF TEMPTATION.
eternal design of his grace, with a taste of the blood of Christ,
and his love in the shedding of it ; get a relish of the privi-
leges we have thereby; our adoption, justification, accepta-
tion with God ; fill the heart with thoughts of the beauty of
holiness, as it is designed by Christ, for the end, issue, and
effect of his death, and thou wilt in an ordinary course of walk-
ing with God, have great peace and security as to the disturb-
ance of temptations. When men can live and plod on in their
profession, and not be able to say, when they had any living
sense of the love of God, or of the privileges which we have
in the blood of Christ ; I know not what they can have to
keep them from falling into snares. The apostle tells us,
that the peace of God, tppovprtcrei rag Kap^iag, Phil. iv. 7. shall
keep our hearts ; cppovpa, is a military word, a garrison ; and
so (l)povp{](7H, is, ' shall keep as in a garrison.' Now a gar-
rison hath two things attending it. First, That it is exposed
to the assaults of its enemies. Secondly, That safety lies
in it from their attempts. It is so with our souls : they are
exposed to temptations, assaulted continually : but if there
be a garrison in them, or if they be kept as in a garrison,
temptation shall not enter, and consequently we shall not
enter into temptation. Now how is this done ? Saith he. The
peace of God shall do it. What is 'this peace of God V A
sense of his love and favour in Jesus Christ. Let this abide
in you, and it shall garrison you against all assaults what-
ever: besides, there is that in an especial manner, which
is also in all the rest of the directions ; namely, that the
thing itself lies in a direct opposition to all the ways and
means that temptation-can make use of, to approach unto our
souls. Contending to obtain, and keep, a sense of the love
of God in Christ, in the nature of it, obviates all the work-
ings and insinuations of temptation. Let this be a third
direction, then, in our watching against temptation, lay in
store of gospel provisions, that may make the soul a defenced
place, against all the assaults thereof.
4. In the first approach of any temptation, as we are all
tempted, these directions following are also suited to carry
on the work of watching, which we are in the pursuit of.
(1.) Be always awake, that thou may est have an early
discovery of thy temptation ; that thou mayest know it so
to be. Most men perceive not their enemy, until they are
OF TEMPTATION. 491
wounded by him. Yea, others may sometimes see them
deeply engaged whilst themselves are utterly insensible ;
they sleep without any sense of danger, until others come
and awake them, by telling them that their house is on
fire. Temptation in a neuter sense is not easily discover-
able,'namely, as it denotes such a way, or thing, or mat-
ter, as is, or may be made use of for the ends of temptation;
few take notice of it, until it is too late ; and they find them-
selves entangled, if not wounded. Watch, then, to under-
stand betimes the snares that are laid for thee ; to understand
the advantages thy enemies have against thee, before they
get strength and power ; before they are incorporated with
thy lusts, and have distilled poison into thy soul.
(2.) Consider the aim and tendency of the temptation,
whatever it be, and of all that are concerned in it. Those
who have an active concurrence into thy temptation, are Sa-
tan, and thy own lusts. For thine own lust, I have mani-
fested elsewhere, what it aims at in all its actings and en-
ticings. It never rises up, but its intendment is the worst
of evils. Every acting of it, would be a formed enmity
against God. Hence look upon it in its first attempts, what
pretences soever may be made, as thy mortal enemy; ' I hate
it/ saith the apostle ; Rom. vii. 15. that is, the working of
lust in me, I hate it ; it is the greatest enemy I have ; oh !
that it were killed and destroyed ; oh ! that I were delivered
out of the power of it. Know then that in the first attempt
or assault in any temptation, the most cursed, sworn enemy
is at hand, is setting on thee, and that for thy utter ruin : so
that it were the greatest madness in the world, to throw
thyself into his arms, to be destroyed. But of this I have
spoken in my discourse of mortification.
Hath Satan any more friendly aim and intention towards
thee, who is a sharer in every temptation ? To beguile thee
as a serpent, to devour thee as a lion, is the friendship that
he owes thee. I shall only add that the sin he tempts thee
to against the law, it is not the thing he aims at; his design
lies against thy interest in the gospel. He would make sin
but a bridge, to get over to a better ground to assault thee,
as to thy interest in Christ. He who perhaps will say to
day thou mayest venture on sin, because thou hast an in-
492 OF TEMPTATION".
terest in Christ; will to-morrow tell thee to the purpose, that
thou hast none, because thou hast done so.
(3.) Meet thy temptation in its entrance with thoughts
of faith concernino; Christ on the cross: this will make it
sink before thee. Entertain no parley, no dispute with it,
if thou wouldest not enter into it. Say it is ' Christ that died,'
that died for such sins as these. This is called ' taking the
shield of faith to quench the fiery darts of Satan ;' Eph. vi.
16. faith doth it, by laying hold on Christ crucified, his love
therein, and what from thence he suffered for sin. Let thy
temptation be what it will ; be it unto sin, to fear or doubt-
ing for sin, or about thy state and condition, it is not able
to stand before faith lifting up the standard of the cross.
We know what means thu- Papists, who have lost the power
of faith, use to keep up the form. They will sign themselves
with the sign of the cross, or make aerial crosses ; and by
virtue of that work done, think to scare away the devil. To
act faith on Christ crucified, is really to sign ourselves with
the sign of the cross ; and thereby ' shall we overcome that
wicked one ;' I Pet. v. 9.
(4.) Suppose the soul hath l)een surprised by temptation
and entangled at unawares, so that now it is too late to re-
sist the first entrances of it; what shall such a soul do, that
it be not plunged into it, and carried away with the power
thereof?
1. Do as Paul did; beseech God again and again, that itmay
' depart from thee ;' 2 Cor. xii. 7. and if thou abidest therein,
thou shalt certainly either be speedily delivered out of it, or
receive a sufiiciency of grace not to be foiled utterly by it.
Only, as I said in part before, do not so much employ thy
thoughts about the things whereunto thou art tempted, which
oftentimes raiseth farther entanglements ; but set thyself
against the temptation itself. Pray against the temptation
that it may depart; and when that is taken away, the things
themselves may be more calmly considered.
2. Fly to Christ, in a peculiar manner, as he was tempted ;
and beg of him to give thee succour in this ' needful time of
trouble ;' Heb. ii. 11. the apostle instructs us herein, ' In that
he hath been tempted, he is able to succour them that are
tempted.' This is the meaning of it ; when you are tempted.
OF TEMPTATION. 493
and are ready to faint, when you want succour, you must
have it or you die ; act faith peculiarly on Christ, as he was
tempted ; that is, consider that he was tempted himself, that
he suffered thereby, that he conquered all temptations, and
that not merely on his own account, seeing for our sakes he
submitted to be tempted ; but for us (he conquered in, and
by himself, but for us) and draw, yea, expect succour from
him ; Heb. iv. 15, 16. lie down at his feet, make thy com-
plaint known to him, beg his assistance, and it will not be
in vain.
3. Look to him who hath promised deliverance ; con-
sider that he is faithful, and will not suffer thee to be tempted
above what thou art able. Consider that he hath promised
a comfortable issue of these trials and temptations. Call
all the promises to mind, of assistance and deliverance that
he hath made ; ponder them in thy heart, and rest upon it,
that God hath innumerable ways that thou knowest not of,
to give thee in deliverance ; as,
(1.) He can send an affliction that shall mortify thy
heart unto the matter of the temptation, whatever it be ; that
that which was before a sweet morsel under the tongue, shall
neither have taste, or relish in it unto thee, thy desire to it
shall be killed ; as was the case with David ; or,
(2.) He can by some providence alter that whole state
of things, from whence thy temptation doth arise ; so taking
fuel from the fire, causing it to go out of itself; as it was
with the same David in the day of battle ; or,
(3.) He can tread down Satan under thy feet, that he
shall not dare to suggest any thing any more to thy disad-
vantage (the God of peace shall do it) that thou shalt hear
of him no more ; or,
(4.) He can give thee such supply of grace, as that thou
mayest be freed, though not from the temptation itself, yet
from the tendency and danger of it, as was the case with
Paul ; or,
(5.) He can give thee such a comfortable persuasion of
good success in the issue, as that thou shalt have refreshment
in thy trials, and be kept from the trouble of the temptation ;
as was the case with the same Paul ; or,
(6.) He can utterly remove it, and make thee a complete
conqueror. And innumerable other ways he hath, of keeping
494 OF TEMPTATION.
thee from entering into temptation, so as to be foiled
by it.
4. Consider where the temptation, wherewith thou art
surprised, hath made its entrance, and by what means, and
with all speed make up the breach : stop that passage
•which the waters have made to enter in at. Deal with thy
soul like a wise physician; inquire, when, how^ by what
means thou fellest into this distemper, and if thou findest
negligence, carelessness, want ot" keeping watch over thyself,
to have lain at the bottom of it, fix thy soul there ; bewail
that before the Lord ; make up that breach, and then pro-
ceed to the work that lies before thee.
CHAP. VIII.
The last general direction, Rev. iii. 10. watch against temptation hy constant
keeping the word of Christ's patience, what that word is ; hoiv it is kept ;
how the heepiyig of it will keep us from the poiver of temptation.
The directions insisted on in the former chapters are such,
as are partly given us in their several particulars, up and
down the Scripture ; partly arise from the nature of the
thing itself. There is one general direction remains, which
is comprehensive'of all that went before, and also adds many
more particulars unto them ; this contains an approved an-
tidote against the poison of temptation ; a remedy, that
Christ himself hath marked with a note of efficacy, and suc-
cess that is given us. Rev. iii. 10. in the words of our Saviour
himself to the church of Philadelphia : 'Because,' saith he,
' thou hast kept the word of my patience, I will also keep
thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon
all the world, to try them that dwell in the earth ;' Christ is
the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever ; as he dealt with
:he church of Philadelphia, so will he deal with us; if we
keep the word of his patience, he will keep us from the hour
of temptation. This then being a way of rolling the whole
care of this weighty affair on him who is able to bear it, it
requires our peculiar consideration.
And tiierefore I shall shew, 1. What it is to keep the
word of Christ's patience, that we may know how to per-
OF TEMPTATION. 495
form our duty. And, 2. How this will be a means of our
preservation, which will establish us in the faith of Christ's
promise.
1. The word of Christ is the word of the gospel; the
word by him revealed from the bosom of the Father. The
word of the Word; the word spoken in time of the eternal
Word. So it is called, ' The word of Christ,' Col. iii. 16.
or the ' gospel of Christ,' Rom. i. 16. 1 Cor. ix. 12. and the
'doctrine of Christ,' Heb. vi. 1. of Christ, that is, as its
author, Heb. i. 1,2. and of him, as the chief subject or
matter of it; 2 Cor. i. 20. Now this word is called the 'word
of Christ's patience,' or tolerance, and forbearance, upon the
account of that patience and long-suftering which in the
dispensation of it, the Lord Christ exerciseth towards the
whole, and to all persons in it ; and that, both actively and
passively ; in his bearing with men, and enduring from them.
(1.) He is patient towards his saints, he bears with them,
suffers from them. He is ' patient to us-ward ;' 2 Pet. iii. 9.
that is, that believe. The gospel is the word of Christ's
patience, even to believers. A soul acquainted with the gos-
pel knows that there is no property of Christ rendered more
glorious therein, than that of his patience ; that he should
bear with so many unkindnesses, so many causeless breaches,
so many neglects of his love, so many affronts done to his
grace, so many violations of engagements, as he doth; it
manifests his gospel to be not only the word of his grace, but
also of his patience. He suflers also from them, in all the
reproaches they bring upon his name and ways : and he
suffers in them; for in 'all their afflictions he is afflicted.'
(2.) Towards his elect, not yet effectually called. Rev.
iii. 20. he stands waiting at the door of their hearts, and
knocks for an entrance. He deals with them by all means,
and yet stands and waits, until ' his head is filled with the
dew, and his locks with the drops of the night ;' Cant. v. 2.
as enduring the cold and inconveniences of the night, that
when his morning is come, he may have entrance ; oftentimes
for a long season, he is by them scorned in his person, per-
secuted in his saints, and ways, reviled in his word, whilst
he stands at the door in the word of his patience, with his
heart full of love towards their poor rebellious souls.
(3.) To the perishing world ; hence the time of his king-
496 OF TEMPTATION.
dom in this world, is called the ' time of his patience ;' Rev.
i. 9. he endures the vessels of wrath with much long-suffer-
ing, Rom. ix. 22. whilst the gospel is administered in the
world, he is patient towards the men thereof, until the
saints in heaven and earth are astonished, and cry out,
'How long?' Psal. xiii. 1,2. Rev. vi. 10. and themselves
do mock at him, as if he were an idol, 2 Pet. iii. 4. he en-
dures from them bitter things ; in his name, ways, worship,
saints, promises, threats, all his interest of honour and love;
and yet passeth by them, lets them alone, does them good;
nor will he cut this way of proceeding short, until the gos-
pel shall be preached no more ; patience must accompany
the gospel.
Now this is the word that is to be kept, that we may be
kept from the hour of temptation. Three things are implied
in the keeping of this word.
[1.] Knowledge. [2.] Valuation. [3.] Obedience.
[1.] Knowledge ; he that will keep this word must know
it, be acquainted with it; under a fourfold notion.
1st. As a word of grace and mercy to save him.
2dly. As a word of holiness and purity to sanctify him.
3dly. As a word of liberty and power to ennoble him,
and set him free.
4thly. As a word of consolation to support him in every
condition.
1st. As a word of grace and mercy able to save us : 'It
is the power of God unto salvation;* Rom. i. 19. 'The
grace of God that bringeth salvation;' Titus ii. 11. 'The
word of grace, that is able to build us up, and to give us an
inheritance among all them that are sanctified ;' Acts xx. 32.
' The word that is able to save our souls ;' James i. 21. When
the word of the gospel is known, as a word of mercy, grace,
and pardon, as the sole evidence for life, as the convey-
ance of an eternal inheritance, when the soul finds it such to
itself, it will strive to keep it.
2dly. As a word of holiness and purity able to sanctify
him ; * Ye are clean through the word I have spoken unto
you,' saith our Saviour; John xv. 3. To that purpose is his
prayer, chap. xvii. 17. He that knows not the word of
Christ's patience, as a sanctifying, cleansing- word, in the
powej of it, upon his own soul ; neither knows it, nor keeps
OF TEMPTATION. 497
it. The empty profession of our days knows not one step
towards this duty ; and thence it is, that the most are so
overborne under the power of temptations ; men full of self,
of the world, of fury, ambition, and almost all unclean lusts,
do yet talk of keeping the word of Christ ; see 1 Pet. xx.
2 Tim. ii. 19.
3dly. As a word of liberty and power, to ennoble him
and set him free ; and this, not only from the guilt of sin
and wrath, for that it doth, as it is a word of grace and
mercy; not only from the power of sin, for that it doth as
it is a word of holiness, but also from all outward respects
of men, or the world, that might entangle him, or enslave
him, it declares us to be Christ's freemen, and in bondage
unto none ; John viii. 32. 1 Cor. vii. 23. we are not by it
freed from due subjection unto superiors, nor from any
duty, nor unto any sin ; 1 Pet. ii. 16. but in two respects,
it is a word of freedom, liberty, largeness of mind, power,
and deliverance from bondage.
1st. In respect of conscience, as to the worship of God ;
Gal.v. 1.
2dly. In respect of ignoble, slavish respects, unto the
men, or things of the world, in the course of our pilgrimage ;
the gospel gives a free, large, and noble spirit in subjection
to God, and none else ; there is administered in it, a spirit
* not of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind ;'
2 Tim. i. 7. A mind in nothing terrified; Phil. i. 28. not
swayed with any by respect whatever; there is nothing
more unworthy of the gospel, than a mind in bondage, to
persons, or things prostituting itself to the lusts of men, or
affrightraents of the world. And he that thus knows the
word of Christ's patience, really and in power, is even there-
by freed from innumerable, from unspeakable temptations.
4thly. As a word of consolation to support him in every
condition ; and to be a full portion in the want of all, it is
a word attended with joy unspeakable and full of glory; it
gives supportment, relief, refreshment, satisfaction, peace,
consolation, joy, boasting, glory, in every condition what-
ever. Thus to know the word of Christ's patience, thus to
know the gospel, is the first part, and it is a great part of
this condition of our preservation from the hour, and power
of temptation.
VOL. VII. 2 K
49S OF TEMPTATION.
[2.] Valuation of what is thus known, belongs to the
keeping of this word ; it is to be kept as a treasure ; 2 Tim.
i. 14. Tjjv KoXriv TrapctKara^mnv, that excellent ' depositum,'
that is, the word of the gospel : 'keep it,' saith the apostle,
• by the Holy Ghost;' and, ' hold fast the faithful word ;' Tit.
i. 9. It is a good treasure, a faithful word, hold it fast. It
is a word that comprises the whole interest of Christ in the
world. To value that as our chiefest treasure, is to keep
the word of Christ's patience. They that will have a regard
from Christ in the time of temptation, are not to be regard-
less of his concernments.
[3.] Obedience ; personal obedience, in the universal
observation of all the commands of Christ, is the keeping
of his word ; John xiv. 15. Close adherence unto Christ
in holiness, and universal obedience, then when the oppo-
sition that the gospel of Christ doth meet withal in the
world, doth render it signally the word of his patience, is
the life and soul of the duty required.
Now all these are to be so managed, with that intention
of mind and spirit, that care of heart, and diligence of the
whole person, as to make up a keeping of this word ; which
evidently includes all those considerations.
We are arrived then to the sum of this safeguarding duty ;
of this condition of freedom from the power of temptation ;
he that having a due acquaintance with the gospel in its
excellencies, as to him, a word of mercy, holiness, liberty,
and consolation, values it, in all its concernments as his
choicest and only treasure ; makes it his business, and the
work of his life, to give himself up unto it in universal obe-
dience, then especially, when opposition, and apostacy put
the patience of Christ to the utmost, hg shall be preserved
from the hour of temptation.
This is that which is comprehensive of all that went be-
fore ; and is exclusive of all other ways for the obtainino- of
the end purposed ; nor let any man think without this, to
be kept one hour from entering into temptation ; wherever
he fails, there temptation enters. That this will be a
sure preservative, may appear, from the ensuing considera-
tions :
(1.) It hath the promise of preservation, and tliis alone
hath so. It is solemnly promised in the place mentioned to
OF TEMPTATION. 499
the church of Philadelphia on this account. When a great
trial and temptation was to come on the world, at the open-
ing of the seventh seal, Rev. vii. 3. a caution is given for
the preservation of God's sealed ones, which are described
to be those, who keep the word of Christ ; for the promise
is, that it should be so.
Now in every promise there are three things to be con-
sidered.
[1.] The faithfulness of the Father who gives of it.
[2.] The grace of the Son which is the matter of it.
[3.] The power and efficacy of the Holy Ghost which
puts the promise in execution. And all these are engaged
for the preservation of such persons from the hour of temp-
tation.
[1.] The faithfulness of God, accompanieth the promise.
On this account is our deliverance laid ; 1 Cor. x. 13. though
we be tempted, yet we shall be kept from the hour of temp-
tation; it shall not grow too strong for us. What comes
on us we shall be able to bear ; and what would be too
hard for us, we shall escape. But what security have we
hereof? Even the faithfulness of God; ' God is faithful who
will not suffer you,' 8cc. And wherein is God's faithful-
ness seen and exercised? 'He is faithful that promised;'
Heb. X. 23. his faithfulness consists in his discharge of his
promises. 'He abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself;'
2 Tim. ii. 13. so that by being under the promise, we have
the faithfulness of God engaged for our preservation.
[2.] There is in every promise of the covenant, the grace
of the Son ; that is, the subject matter of all promises. ' I
will keep thee :' how ? By my grace with thee : so that what
assistance the grace of Christ can give a soul that hath a right
in this promise, in the hour of temptation it shall enjoy it.
Paul's temptation grew very high ; it was likely to have
come to its prevalent hour ; he ' besought the Lord,' that is,
the Lord Jesus Christ, for help ; 2 Cor. xii. 8. and receives
that answer from him, ' My grace is sufficient for thee ;' ver. 9.
that it was the Lord Christ and his grace, with whom he had
peculiarly to do, is evident from the close of that verse ; ' 1
will glory in my infirmity, that the power of Christ may rest
upon me;' or the efficacy of the grace of Christ in my pre-
servation, be made evident; so Heb. ii. 18.
2 K 2
500 OF TEJIPTATIOX.
[3.] The efficacy of the Spirit, accompanieth the pro-
mises. He is called the ' Holy Spirit of promise ;' not only
because he is promised by Christ, but also because he ef-
fectually makes good the promise, and gives it accomplish-
ment in our souls. He also then is engaged to preserve the
soul walking according to the rule laid down : see Isa. lix.
21. Thus where the promise is, there is all this assistance ;
the faithfulness of the Father, the grace of the Son, the
power of the Spirit; all are engaged in our preservation.
(2.) This constant, universal keeping of Christ's word of
patience, will keep the heart and soul in such a frame, as
wherein no prevalent temptation, by virtue of any advantages
whatever, can seize upon it, so as totally to prevail against it.
So David prays, Psal. xxv. 21. * Let integrity preserve me.'
This integrity and uprightness, is the Old Testament keeping
the word of Christ, universal close walking with God. Now
how can they preserve a man? Why, by keeping his heart in
such a frame, so defended on every side, that no evil can ap-
proach, or take hold on him ? Fail a man in his integrity, he
hath an open place for temptation to enter; Isa. Ivii. 21. To
keep the word of Christ, is to do it universally, as hath been
shewed.; this exercises grace in all the faculties of the soul ;
and compasses it with the whole armour of God: the un-
derstanding is full of light, the affections of love and holi-
ness ; let the wind blow from what quarter it will, the soul
is fenced and fortified ; let the enemy assault when, or by
what means he pleaseth, all things in the soul of such a one
are upon the guard ; ' How can I do this thing and sin against
God V is at hand. Especially, upon a twofold account, doth
deliverance and security arise from this hand.
[1.] By the mortification of the heart unto the matter of
temptations. The prevalency of any temptation arises from
hence, that the heart is ready to close with the matter of it.
There are lusts within, suited to the proposals of the world,
or Satan without. Hence James resolves all temptations
into our own lusts, chap. i. 14. because either they proceed
from, or are made effectual by them, as hath been declared.
Why doth terror, or threats turn us aside from a due con-
stancy in the performance of our duty? Is it not because
there is unmortified, carnal fear abiding in us, that tumul-
tuates in such a season? Wliy is it that the allurements of
OF TEMPTATION 501
the world and compliances with men entangle us ? Is it not
because our affections are entangled with the things and
considerations proposed unto us? Now keeping the word of
Christ's patience, in the manner declared, keeps the heart
mortified to these things, and so it is not easily entangled
by them. Saith the apostle. Col. ii. 20. 'I am crucified with
Christ :' he that keeps close to Christ, is crucified with him,
and is dead to all the desires of the flesh and the world : as
more fully, chap. vi. 14. Here the match is broken, and all
love, entangling love, dissolved. The heart is crucified to
the world, and all things in it. Now the matter of all tempta-
tions almost is taken out of the world : the men of it, or the
things of it, make them up. As to these things, says the
apostle, ' I am crucified to them' (and it is so with every one
that keeps the word of Christ) ; my heart is mortified unto
them ; I have no desire after them ; nor affection to them,
nor delight in them ; and they are crucified unto me. The
crowns, glories, thrones, pleasures, profits, of the world, I
see nothing desirable in them; the lusts, sensual pleasures,
love, respects, honours of men, name and reputation among
them, they are all as a thing of nought ; I have no value, nor
estimation of them. This soul is safeguarded from assaults
of manifold temptations. When Achan saw the goodly Ba-
bylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a
wedse of fold : first he coveted them, then he took them.
Josh vii.21. Temptation subtilely spreads the Babylonish gar-
ment of favour, praise, peace, the silver of pleasure, or profit
with the golden contentments of the flesh, before the eyes
of men ; if now there be that in them alive, unmortified, that
will presently fall a coveting, let what fear of punishment
will ensue, the heart or hand will be put forth unto iniquity.
Herein then lies the security of such a frame, as that de-
scribed : it is always accompanied with a mortified heart ;
crucified unto the things that are the matter of our tempta-
tions ; without which it is utterly impossible, that we should
be preserved one moment when any temptation doth befall
us. If liking, and love of the things proposed, insinuated,
commended in the temptation, be living and active in us, we
shall not be able to resist and stand.
[2.] In this frame the heart is filled with better things,
and their excellency ; so far as to be fortified against the
502 OF TEMPTATION.
matter ol" any temptation. See what resolution this puts
Paul upon ; Phil. iii. 8. all is loss and dung to him. Who
would go out of his way, to have his arms full of loss and
dung ? And whence is it, that he hath this estimation of
the most desirable things in the world? It is from that dear
estimation he had of the excellency of Christ; so ver. 10.
when the soul is exercised to communion with Christ, and
to walking with him ; he drinks new wine, and cannot de-
sire the old things of the world, for he says the new is bet-
ter. He tastes every day how gracious the Lord is, and
therefore longs not after the sweetness of forbidden things,
which indeed have none. He that makes it his business to
eat daily of the tree of life, will have no appetite unto other
fruit, thougli the tree that bare them seem to stand in the
midst of paradise. This the spouse makes the means of her
preservation ; even the excellency which by daily commu-
nion, she found in Christ and his graces, above all other de-
sirable things. Let a soul exercise itself to a communion
with Christ, in the good things of the gospel, pardon of sin,
fruits of holiness, hope of glory, peace with God, joy in the
Holy Ghost, dominion over sin, and he shall have a mighty
preservative against all temptations. As the full soul loath-
eth the honeycomb ; as a soul filled with carnal, earthly,
sensual contentments finds no relish nor savour in the sweet-
est spiritual things ; so he that is satisfied with the kindness
of God, as with marrow and fatness, that is every day en-
tertained at the banquet of wine, wine upon the lees, and
well refined ; hath a holy contempt of the baits and allure-
ments that lie in prevailing temptations, and is safe.
(3.) He that so keeps the word of Christ's patience, is
always furnished with preserving considerations, and pre-
serving principles ; moral and real advantages of pre-
servation.
[1.] He is furnished with preserving considerations, that
powerfully influence his soul in his walking diligently with
Christ. Besides the sense of duty which is always upon
him, he considers,
1st. The concernment of Christ, whom his soul loves in
him and his careful walking. He considers that the pre-
sence of Christ is with him, his eye upon him, that he pon-
ders his heart and ways, as one greatly concerned in his
OF TEMPTATION. 503
deportment of himself, in a time of trial. So Christ mani-
fests himself to do; Rev. ii., 19, 20. He considers all; what
is acceptable, what is to be rejected : he knows that Christ
is concerned in his honour, that his name be not evil spoken
of by reason of him ; that he is concerned in love to his
soul ; having that design upon him to present him holy,
and unblamable, and unreprovable in his sight ; Col. i. 22.
and his Spirit is grieved where he is interrupted in this work ;
concerned on the account of this gospel, the progress and
acceptation of it in the world ; its beauty would be slurred,
its good things reviled, its progress stopped, if such a one
be prevailed against ; concerned in his love to others, who
are grievously scandalized, and perhaps ruined by the mis-
carriages of such. When Hymeneus and Philetus fell, they
overthrew the faith of some, and says such a soul then, who
is exercised to keep the word of Christ's patience, when in-
tricate, perplexed, entangling temptations, public, private,
personal, do arise ; Shall I now be careless, shall I be neg-
ligent, shall t comply with the world, and the ways of it?
Oh ! what thoughts of heart hath he concerning me, whose
eye is upon me? Shall I contemn his honour, despise his
love, trample his gospel in the mire under the feet of men,
turn aside others from his ways ? Shall such a man as I j9y,
give over resistings ? It cannot be. There is no man who
keeps the word of the patience of Christ, but is full of this
soul pressing consideration, it dwells on his heart and spirit,
and love of Christ constrains him so to keep his heart and
ways; 2 Cor. v. 10.
2dly. The great consideration of the temptations of
Christ in his behalf, and the conquest he made in all as-
saults for his sake, and his God dwell also on his spirit. The
prince of this world came upon him, every thing in earth or
hell, that hath either allurement or afiTrightment in it, was
proposed to him, to divert him from the work of mediation,
which for us he had undertaken : this whole life he calls the
time of his temptation ; but he resisted all, conquered all,
and is become a captain of salvation to them that obey him.
And, says the soul, shall this temptation, these arguings,
this plausible pretence, this sloth, this self-love, this sen-
suality, this bait of the world, turn me aside, prevail over
me, to desert him who went before me, in the ways of all
504 OF TEMPTATION.
temptations that his holy nature was obnoxious unto, for my
good?
3rdly. Dismal thoughts of the loss of love, of the smiles
of the countenance of Christ, do also frequently exercise
such a soul. He knows what it is to enjoy the favour of
Christ, to have a sense of his love, to be accepted in his ap-
proaches to him, to converse with him ; and perhaps hath
been sometimes at some loss in this thing, and so knows
also, what it is to be in the dark, distanced from him. See
the deportment of the spouse in such a case. Cant. iii. 4.
when she had once found him again ; she holds him, she will
not let him go, she will loose him no more.
[2.] He that keeps the word of Christ's patience, hath
preserving principles, whereby he is acted. Some of them
may be mentioned.
1st. In all things he lives by faith, and is acted by it in
all his ways; Gal. ii. 20. Now upon a twofold account hath
faith, when improved, the power of preservation from tempta-
tion annexed unto it.
(1st.) Because it empties the soul of its own wisdom,
understanding, and fulness, that it may act in the wisdom
and fulness of Christ. The only advice for preservation in
trials and temptations lies in that of the wise man, Prov.
iii. 5. ' Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not
to thine own understanding.' This is the work of faith : it
is faith ; it is to live by faith. The great [cause of] falling of
men in trials, is their leaning to, or leaning upon, their own
understanding and counsel. What is the issue of it? Job
xviii. 7. 'The steps of his strength shall be straightened, and
his own counsel shall cast him down.' First he shall be en-
tangled, and then cast down ; and all by his own counsel,
until he come to be ashamed of it, as Ephraim was ; Hos.
X. 6. Whenever in our trials, we consult our own understand-
ings, hearken to self-reasonings, though they seem to be
good, and tending to our preservation, yet the principle of
living by faith is stifled, and we shall in the issue be cast
down by our own counsels. Now nothing can empty the
heart of this self-fulness, but faith, but living by it, but not
living to ourselves, but having Christ live in us, by our living
by faith on him.
(2dly.) Faith, making the soul poor, empty, helpless.
OF TEMPTATION. 505
destitute in itself, engages the heart, will, and power of Je-
sus Christ, for assistance, of which I have spoken more at
large elsewhere.
2dly. Love to the saints, with care that they suffer not
upon our account, is a great preserving principle in a time
of temptations and trials. How powerful this was in David,
he declares in that earnest prayer, Psal. Ixix. 6. ' Let not
them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for
my sake. Let not those that seek thee be confounded for my
sake, O God of Israel.' O let not me so miscarry, that those
for whom I would lay down my life, should be put to shame,
be evil spoken of, dishonoured, reviled, contemned on my
account, for my failings. A selfish soul, whose love is turned
wholly inwards, will never abide in a time of trial.
Many other considerations and principles, that those who
keep the word of Christ's patience in the way and manner
before described, are attended withal, might be enumerated,
but I shall content myself to have pointed at these men-
tioned.
And will it now be easy to determine, whence it is that
so many in our days, are prevailed on, in the time of trial;
that the hour of temptation comes upon them, and bears
them down, more or less before it? Is it not because amongst
the great multitude of professors that we have, there are few
that keep the word of the patience of Christ ? If we wilfully
neglect, or cast away our interest in the promise of pre-
servation, is it any wonder, if we be not preserved ? There
is an hour of temptation come upon the world, to try them
that dwell therein ; it variously exerts its power and efficacy;
there is not any way, nor thing, wherein it may not be seen
acting and putting forth itself, in worldliness, in sensuality,
in looseness of conversation, in neglect of spiritual duties,
private, public, in foolish, loose, diabolical opinions, in
haughtiness and ambition ; in envy and wrath, in strife and
debate, revenge, selfishness ; in atheism and contempt of
God, doth it appear. They are but branches of the same
root, bitter streams of the same fountain, cherished by
peace, prosperity, security, apostacies of professors and the
like ; and alas ! how many do daily fall under the power of
this temptation in general ? How few keep their garments
girt about them, and undefiled ? And if any urging particular
506 OF TEMPTATION.
temptation befall any, what instances almost have we of any
that escape? May we not describe our condition, as the
apostle that of the Corinthians in respect of an outward vi-
sitation ; 'some are sick, and some are weak, and many
sleep ;' some are wounded, some defiled, many utterly lost :
what is the spring and fountain of the sad condition of
things? Is it not, as hath been said; we do not keep the
word of Christ's patience in universal close walking with
him ; and so lose the benefit of the promise given and an-
nexed thereunto ?
Should I go about to give instances of this thing; of
professors coming short of keeping the word of Christ, it
would be a long work. These four heads would comprise
the most of them. First, conformity to the world, which
Christ hath redeemed us from, almost in all things, with joy
and delight, in promiscuous compliances, with the men of
the world. Secondly, neglect of duties which Christ hath
enjoined, from close meditation to public ordinances. Thirdly,
strife, variance, and debate among ourselves ; woful judging
and despising one another, upon account of things foreign to
the bond of communion that is between the saints. Fourthly,
self-fulness as to principles, and selfishness as to ends. Now
where these things are, are not men carnal ? Is the word of
Christ's patience effectual in them? Shall they be preserved?
They shall not.
Would you then be preserved, and kept from the hour of
temptation ; would you watch against entering into it, as
deductions from what hath been delivered in this chapter,
take the ensuing cautions.
1. Take heed of leaning on deceitful assistances ; as,
(1.) On your own counsels, understandings, reasonings,
though you argue in them never so plausibly in your own
defence, they will leave you, betray you ; when the tempta-
tion comes to any height, they will all turn about, and take
part with your enemy, and plead as much for the matter of
the temptation whatever it be, as they pleaded against the
end and issue of it before.
(2.) The most vigorous actings by prayer, fasting, and
other such means against that particular lust, corruption,
temptation, wherewith you are exercised, and have to do.
This will not avail you, if in the meantime there be neg-
OF TEMPTATION. 507
lects on other accounts ; to hear a man wrestle, cry, con-
tend as to any particular of temptation, and immediately fall
into wordly ways, wordly compliances, looseness, and neg-
ligence in other things it is righteous with Jesus Christ to
leave such a one to the hour of temptation.
(3.) The general security of saints' perseverance, and pre-
servation from total apostacy. Every security that God
gives us, is good in its kind, and for the purpose for which
it is given to us ; but when it is given for one end, to use it
for another, that is not good or profitable. To make use of
the general assurance of preservation from total apostacy,
to support the spirit in respect of a particular temptation,
will not in the issue advantage the soul ; because notwith-
standing that, this or that temptation may prevail. Many
relieve themselves with this, until they find themselves in
the depth of perplexities.
2. Apply yourselves to this great preservation of faithful
keeping the word of Christ's patience, in the midst of all
trials and temptations.
(1.) In particular, wisely consider wherein the word of
Christ's patience is most likely to suffer in the days where-
in we live, and the seasons that pass over us, and so vigor-
ously set yourselves to keep it in that particular, peculiarly.
You will say, How shall we know wherein the word of
Christ's patience in any season is like to suffer? I answer;
Consider what works he peculiarly performs in any season ;
and neglect of his word in reference to them, is that where-
in his word is like to suffer. The works of Christ, wherein
he hath been peculiarly engaged in our days and seasons,
seem to be these :
[1.] The pouring of contempt upon the great men and
great things of the world, with all the enjoyments of it, he
hath discovered the nakedness of all earthly things, in over-
turning, overturning, overturning, both men and things, to
make way for the things that cannot be shaken.
[2.] The owning of the lot of his own inheritance in a
distinguishing manner, putting a difference between the pre-
cious and the vile, and causing his people to dwell alone, as
not reckoned with the nations.
[3.] In being nigh to faith and prayer, honouring them
above all the strength and counsels of the sons of men.
508 OF TEMPTATION.
[4.] In recovering his ordinances and institutions from
the carnal administrations, that they were in bondage under
by the lusts of men, bringing them forth in the beauty and the
power of the Spirit. Wherein then in such a season must
lie in the peculiar neglect of the word of Christ's patience ?
Is it not in setting a value on the world, and the things of
it, which he hath stained and trampled under foot ? Is it not
in the slighting of his peculiar lot, his people, and casting
them into the same considerations with the men of the world?
Is it not in leaning to our own counsels and understandings?
Is it not in the defilement of his ordinances, by giving the
outward court of the temple to be trod upon by unsanctified
persons ? Let us then be watchful, and in these things keep
the word of the patience of Christ, if we love our own pre-
servation.
[5.] In this frame urge the Lord Jesus Christ with his
blessed promises, with all the considerations that may be
apt to take and hold the king in his galleries, that may work
on the heart of our blessed and merciful High Priest, to
give suitable succour at time of need.
CHAP. IX.
General exhortation to the duty prescribed.
Having thus passed through the considerations of the duty
of watching, that we enter not into temptation, I suppose I need
not add motives to the observance of it. Those who are
not moved by their own sad experiences, nor the importance
of the duty, as laid down in the entrance of this discourse,
must be left by me to the farther patience of God. I shall
only shut up the whole with a general exhortation to them,
who are in any measure prepared for it, by the consideration
of what hath been spoken. Should you go into an hospital,
and see many persons lying sick and weak, sore and wound-
ed, with many filthy diseases and distempers, and should
inquire of them, how they fell into this condition, and they
shall all agree to tell you, such, or such a thing was the oc-
casion of it ; by that I got ray wound says one, and ray dis-
ease says another ; would it not make you a little careful
OF TEMPTATION. 609
how, or what you had to do with that thing or place? Surely
it would. Should you go to a dungeon, and see many mi-
serable creatures bound in chains for an approaching day of
execution, and inquire the way and means whereby they
were brought into that condition, and they should all fix on
one and the same thing, would you not take care to avoid
it? The case is so with entering into temptation : ah! how
many poor, miserably, spiritually, wounded souls have we
every where ? One wounded by one sin, another by another ;
one falling into filthiness of the flesh, another of the spirit :
ask them now how they came into this estate and condition ;
they must all answer, alas ! we entered into temptation, we
fell into cursed snares and entanglements, and that hath
brought us into the woful condition you see. Nay, if a
man could look into the dungeons of hell, and see the poor
damned souls that lie bound in chains of darkness, and hear
their cries : what would he be taught? What do they say?
Are they not cursing their tempters, and the temptations
that they entered in? And shall we be negligent in this
thing? Solomon tells us, that the ' simple one that follows
the strange woman knows not that the dead are there, that her
house inclineth to death, and her paths to the dead' (which
he repeats three times), and that is the reason, that he ven-
tures on her snares. If you knew what hath been done by
entering into temptation, perhaps you would be more watch-
ful and careful. Men may think that they shall do well
enough notwithstanding; but 'can a man take fire in his bo-
som and his clothes not be burnt?' Can one go upon hot
coals, and his feet not be burnt? Prov. vii. 27, 28. No such
thing ; men come not out of their temptation without wounds,
burnings, and scars. I know not any place in the world,
where there is more need of pressing this exhortation, than
in this : go to our several colleges, inquire for such and such
young men ; what is the answer in respect of many ? Ah !
such a one was very hopeful for a season, but he fell into
ill company and he is quite lost. Such a one had some
good beginning of religion, we were in great expectation of
him, but he is fallen into temptation ; and so in other places :
such a one was useful and humble, adorned the gospel,
but now he is so wofully entangled with the world, that he
is grown all self, hath no sap nor savour ; such a one was
510 OF TEMPTATION.
humble and zealous, but he is advanced and hath lost his
first love and ways ; oh I how full is the world, how full is
this place of these woful examples : to say nothing of these
innumerable poor creatures, who are fallen into temptation
by delusions in religion. And is it not time for us to awake
before it be too late ; to watch against the first rising of sin,
the first attempts of Satan, and all ways whereby he hath
made his approaches to us, be they never so harmless in
themselves ?
Have we not experience of our weakness, our folly, the
invincible power of temptation when once it is gotten within
us ? As for this duty that I have insisted on, take these con-
siderations :
1. If you neglect it, it being the only means prescribed
by our Saviour, you will certainly enter into temptation, and
as certainly fall into sin : flatter not yourselves ; some of you
are old disciples, have a great abhorrency of sin; you think
it impossible you should ever be seduced so and so : but,
* let him (whoever he be) that standeth take heed lest he
fall.' It is not any grace received, it is not any experience
obtained, it is not any resolution improved, that will preserve
you from any evil, unless you stand upon your watch : * what
I say to you,' says Christ, 'I say to all ; watch.' Perhaps
you may have had some good success for a time, in your
careless frame : but awake, admire God's tenderness and
patience, or evil lies at the door. If you will not perform
this duty, whoever you are, one way or other, in one thing
or other, spiritual or carnal wickedness, you will be tempt-
ed, you will be defiled, and what will be the end thereof?
Remember Peter.
2. Consider that you are always under the eye of Christ,
the great captain of our salvation, who hath enjoined us to
watch thus, and pray that we enter not into temptation.
What think you are the thoughts, and what the heart of
Christ, when he sees a temptation hastening towards us, a
storm rising about us, and we are fast asleep ? Doth it not
grieve him, to see us expose ourselves so to danger, after he
hath given us warning upon warning? Whilst he was in the
days of his flesh, he considered his temptation whilst it was
yet coming, and armed himself against it : ' the prince of
this world cometh,' says he, 'but hath no part in me.' And
OF TEMPTATION. 511
shall we be negligent under his eye ? Do but think that
thou seest hitn coming to thee, as he did to Peter, when he
was asleep in the garden, with the same reproof, * What !
canst thou not watch one hour?' Would it not be a grief to
thee to be so reproved, or to hear him thundering against
thy neglect from heaven, as against the church of Sardis 1
Rev. iii. 2.
3. Consider that if thou neglect this duty, and so fall
into temptation, which assuredly thou wilt do, that when
thou art entangled, God may withal bring some heavy afflic-
tion or judgment upon thee, which by reason of thy entan-
glement, thou shalt not be able to look on any otherwise,
than as an evidence of his anger and hatred : and then what
wilt thou do with thy temptation and affliction together ?
All thy bones will be broken, and thy peace and strength
will be gone in a moment. This may seem but as a noise of
words for the present, but if ever" it be thy condition, thou
wilt find it to be full of woe and bitterness : Oh ! then let us
strive to keep our spirits unentangled, avoiding all appear-
ance of evil; and always leading thereunto : especially all
ways, businesses, societies, and employments, that we have
already found disadvantageous to us.
END OF VOL. VII,
Printed by J. F. Dovf,, St. John's Sqaare.
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